Organized public school teachers have called on the government to lower their optional retirement age to 57 to enable them to enjoy their post-work benefits to the maximum.
The call was made in conjunction with global observance of World Teachers’ Month. Some 200 teachers held a motorcade in Mandaluyong City on Sunday to mark the occasion.
“’Yung panawagan namin ay ibaba na po ‘yung dapat na mag-retire na si teacher para rin po mapakinabangan naman po ni teacher ang kanyang retirement. Hindi ‘yung at the age of 60, at the age of 65, si teacher ay ipinagbibili na lang ng gamot ang kanilang retirement pay. (Our call is to reduce the retirement age so that we can still enjoy our retirement benefits, not at the age of 60 or 65 when our money is spent on medicines), said Miriam Villa Ignacio, president of the Mandaluyong Federation of Public School Teachers Association.
The teachers also appealed for salary increase, reduction of their working hours, increase in their medical benefits, and grant of hazard pay, among other issues.
In January, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading a bill lowering the retirement age for state workers from 60 to 56 years old.
Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte has expressed optimism that the senators would also support House Bill 206 earlier passed by the lower chamber.
The bill was a consolidation of 13 related measures. It was entitled, “An Act lowering the optional retirement age of government workers from sixty years to 56 years, amending for the purpose Section 13-A of Republic Act 8291, otherwise known as The Government Service Insurance System Act of 1997.”
Compulsory retirement was mandated at 65 years.
Villafuerte called on the Senate to pass the counterpart measure—Senate Bill (SB) 1832—that was authored by Senator Ramon Revilla Jr.Villafuerte, majority leader of the House-contingent’s Commission on Appointments, said it was about time for the 19th Congress to pass a measureletting government employees retire when they reach 56.
He called HB 206 a complimentary measure to the newly-signed law fixing the retirement age in the Armed Forces at 57.
“Given President Marcos’ signing into law of a measure fixing the maximum terms of duty of top military officers and setting the retirement age of our soldiers at 57, it’s time for the Senate to pass a complementary, House-passed bill allowing government personnel, including public school teachers, to retire at 56,” Villafuerte, a co-author of this proposed legislation, said.
HB 206 provides that a government worker-GSIS member would be entitled to retirement benefits if he is at least 56 years of age at the time of retirement, has rendered service for at least 15 years and he is not receiving a monthly pension for permanent total disability.
Under RA 8291, a retiring member could opt for a five-year lump sum of benefits, with his monthly pension to be paid after five years, or cash equivalent to 18 months, with the payment of his pension taking effect immediately.
Villafuerte, said the bill’s enactment “would enable would-be retirees to reap the benefits of their hard work at a younger age and at the same time open up new job opportunities to those in the private sector who want to formally join Government but can’t in the absence of available positions in the bureaucracy.”
President Marcos earlier signed Republic Act (RA) 11939, amending RA 11709 by prescribing a fixed three-year tour of duty for the Armed Forces chief and other top AFP officers, and letting all soldiers retire when they reach the age of 57 or have been in active militaryservice for 30 years.
RA 11939 raised the compulsory retirement age to 57 from 56 or upon accumulating 30 years of satisfactory active military service for all soldiers as well as officers with the rank of second lieutenant or ensign up to lieutenant general or vice admiral.
“The House-ratified bill on earlier retirement for civil servants will give our over a million workers in government the option to leave public service at a younger age than currently allowed, so they can, for one, spend more quality time with their respective families even before they join the ranks of the elderly,” Villafuerte said.