PAGUDPUD, Ilocos Norte — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday said the government is finding ways to make the pension system for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) “self-sustaining” as the fund could be depleted in half a decade.

“We are still in the midst of putting together the pension plans,” Marcos Jr. told reporters here in a chance interview.

“We’re working hard on making sure that we have a pension plan both for the AFP and the police na maging self-sustaining,” he said.

“If we keep going the way we do, ang prediction ko mauubos yan within 5-6 years… Bago pa mangyari yun, inuunahan na natin,” he added.

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Earlier this week, the Department of National Defense (DND) warned of a possible mass retirement among uniformed personnel to secure their benefits, months after Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno pushed to reform the military and uniformed personnel (MUP) pension system.

Diokno earlier described the current setup as “unsustainable” as it is “fully funded by the government… but there is no contribution from retirees.”

“When the salary of the Armed Services doubled in 2018, this also reflected in the pension of retired personnel,” Diokno said in an earlier press conference in Malacañang.

“It’s not sustainable. If this goes on, there will be a fiscal collapse.”

Marcos Jr. said that the potential collapse of the MUP pension system was not the reason for adjusting the retirement age of uniformed personnel to 57 years old from the previous 55 years old.

“Dahil sa K-12… ang mga recruit mas matanda na, they come in two years later so we should adjust the retirement,” he said.

“This takes care of the problem of the seniority and the ginagawa nating mga promotion na kapag masyadong tumatagal yung mga nasa taas, wala nang chance yung mga sumusunod,” he said.

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