MANILA — Around P150 billion has been allocated for the pension of military and uniformed personnel for the proposed 2024 budget, despite a government push to institute sweeping reforms in their pension system, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said Thursday.

Pangandaman said this is because of the lack of legislation and an administration's version of the proposed reforms under the Military and Uniformed Personnel (MUP) pension system.

"Kakatapos lang iyong consultation ng economic team around the country and I know that GSIS is working on an actuarial, matatapos din po nila iyong study within the month or the next two weeks," said Pangandaman in a Palace briefing.

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"By then, we will have the admin version of the MUP. So since wala pa po, same pa rin po iyong budget na—we still provided the fund for the MUP which is almost 150 billion pesos,” she added.

Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno earlier warned of a “fiscal collapse” if government does not institute reforms soon, as MUP pensions are fully funded through taxpayers money.

Pangandaman said she expects pressure to be eased from the national budget once the proposed pension reform bill is passed into law, expected to be passed before the end of 2023.

“Iyong consultation natin, I think they agreed naman to contribute doon sa pension system, so mababawasan po iyong pressure from our national budget,” she said.

In the initial proposal, the MUP pension system reform would include the removal of automatic indexation in the pension, and the implementation of mandatory contribution for military personnel.

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Video from PTV