PRRD vetoes survivorship benefits bill over ‘onerous’ provisions

FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) campaign rally at the South Cotabato Sports Complex in Koronadal City on March 26, 2019. RICHARD MADELO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — Malacañang on Monday confirmed President Rodrigo R. Duterte vetoed a measure meant to give survivorship benefits to the children of deceased retired members of constitutional bodies — Commission on Audit, Civil Service Commission, Commission on Elections, and the Office of the Ombudsman.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this confirmation after Senate President Vicente Sotto III in an interview over DWIZ on Saturday (April 13) bared that the President has rejected the enrolled bill.

A copy of Duterte’s letters to Sotto and House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo dated April 12 were sent to media.

“We confirm that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte vetoed Senate Bill No. 1917/House Bill No. 7820,” Panelo said in a statement.

Panelo said the President, in his letter to Congressional leaders, took into consideration that the granting of benefits outside the current compensation framework may be too “burdensome” to the government.

“While I support the importance of passing this enrolled bill to authorize additional benefits to the Commission on Audit, the Civil Service Commission, the Commission on Elections, and the Office of the Ombudsman and admire the work of the men and women in these Constitutional Offices, I am apprehensive that the provisions granting the benefits beyond the current compensation framework for other government offices may prove to be too onerous to the government,” Duterte said in the letter.

Duterte emphasized that the new benefits granted in addition to the benefits enjoyed by other government offices would “erode the national government’s thrust to standardize and rationalize the current compensation framework in the bureaucracy.

”

Moreover, the President said benefits will also “create too much disparity and inequality in compensation among public servants.”

He said additional benefits proposed in the enrolled bill are not granted to any government official under the current government compensation framework.

“In view of these considerations, I am constrained to veto the above-mentioned bill,” Duterte said.

Senate Bill 1917 and House Bill 7820 seeks to amend the Republic Act 10084 by extending the survivorship benefits to the dependent children of deceased retired members of constitutional bodies who is a solo parent and died without issues.

The current RA 10084 only provides benefits to the surviving legitimate spouses of the deceased retired officials of the COA, CSC, Comelec, and the Ombudsman.