THE Philippine National Police Retirement and Benefits Administration Service (PNP-PRBS) is enhancing its information and communications technology to better serve 77,000 police pensioners, the head of the unit told the Journal Group.

“We will be banking on modern technology to better serve our retired police commissioned and non-commissioned officers as well as non-uniformed personnel who should really be recognized for the service they have rendered to the country,” said PNP-PRBS director Colonel Leon Victor Z. Rosete.

Rosete said they are on a mission to serve their clients, who are retired uniformed and non-uniformed police personnel as well as police widows and widowers and their children-beneficiaries.

“We are enhancing all programs implemented by my predecessors in order to expedite the processing of papers of our clients” said the official.

He said PNP chief General Benjamin C. Acorda Jr. instructed him to ensure the speedy processing of the retirement papers and application for all benefits by retired PNP personnel.

He said they include an enhanced program to provide genuine and reliable health care for their clients; a mobile app that would make it very easy for police pensioners to connect to them even when they are away; the putting-up of a Quality Service Lane for PNP pensioners; and the full monitoring of their Active Pensioner Buddy (APB) program.

The official said that during his spare time, he makes it a point to stay at their QSL area where he encounters pensioners’ complaints.

“There are peculiar cases of pensioners with more than one family and with each woman trying to get a part of the pension of their cop-partners claiming they are entitled to a pension because they are the legitimate wife even though they are not,” the PNP-PRBS director said.

The PNP-PRBS has a mission to administer the retirement and separation benefits of PNP personnel and implement plans and programs that will help uplift the morale of all PNP retirees and their beneficiaries.

It is currently enhancing its APB program in tracking and monitoring police pensioners nationwide.

Under the program, police personnel with the rank of lieutenant colonel down to patrolman/patrolwoman are tapped to consolidate and report information and condition of pensioners for assessment by the PRBS and the PNP Directorate for Personnel and Records Management.

The PNP-PRBS is also instrumental in the police crackdown against bogus pensioners who have been siphoning millions of pesos from the police funds through illegal pension claims of some police retirees since last month.

In 2019, the PNP-PRBS started purging its list of “ghost pensioners and illegal pension claimants” who are believed to have caused the government to lose tens of millions of pesos every year.

The PNP then ordered the filing of charges against illegal pensioners.

It was done through the launching of a nationwide accounting to update the records and collect the biometrics of PNP pensioners.

Rosete said he decided to improve their QSL area so pensioners can stay there while processing their papers.

The PRBS pensioner’s lounge is now a beehive of activities where retired cops and their beneficiaries are promptly attended to by PRBS personnel.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Alfred P. Dalizon