PRO-6 purges pensioners’ list amid reports of ineligible beneficiaries

By Jennifer P. Rendon 

The Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) has cleansed its list of pensioners following reports of ineligible beneficiaries.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Gilbert Gorero, chief of the Regional Plans Division and concurrent officer-in-charge of the PRO-6 Public Information Office (PIO), said they deployed tracker teams in purging the list of qualified beneficiaries.

PRO-6 has so far accounted for 942 pensioners, as of June 1, 2020.

“All of the 942 are eligible to receive their benefits,” he said.

Aklan has 60, Antique with 68, Guimaras has 21; Capiz, 93; Iloilo province, 208; Negros Occidental, 276; Bacolod City, 64; and Iloilo City, 152.

PNP pensioners are those who retired from service or their legitimate wives and surviving children below 18 years old.

The PNP Retirement and Benefits Unit (PRBU)-6 conducted the accounting of police retirees from May 19, 2020 to May 30, 2020 on orders of PNP chief General Archie Gamboa.

The accounting was conducted following reports that some pensioners are no longer qualified because their survivors have reached legal age while others have already died.

The PRBU-6 earlier required legal age survivors to submit their birth certificate.

Immediate families of PNP members who are already deceased are required to submit the death certificate.

Gorero said the accounting was simultaneously done all over the country to ensure that the documents and data of pensioners are complete and that their biometrics are registered in the system.

Meanwhile, Police Brigadier Rene Pamuspusan, Western Visayas police chief, underscored the importance of cleansing the list of qualified PNP pensioners to avoid wastage of  government resources.

Earlier, Gamboa said more than 1,000 unqualified pensioners continuously claim from the PNP Pension Fund.

“Cases will be filed against individuals and groups perpetrating these fraudulent claims.  The PNP will exhaust all legal means to recover lost pension funds paid to ineligible claimants,” he said.

According to Police Colonel Arthur Bisnar, IPRBS Acting Director, a total of 1,027 pensioners were discovered to be no longer eligible based on grounds stipulated by the mandate of the Police Retirement Benefits Administration Service (PRBS).

These pensioners were either deceased, have remarried or have reached the age of majority.