TPPD beneficiaries urges gov’t to review RA 8551
TPPD beneficiaries urges gov't to review
RA 8551
The
total permanent physical disability (TPPD) beneficiaries have called on the government
to review the law and to determine whether the pension is being properly
implemented.
Several retired police officers who have suffered permanent disability while in service raises concern as they are not receiving the usual pension they’re getting from the PNP.
Amelita
Bermejo, a widower of a retired police officer who is also a beneficiary of
TPPD, said she no longer receives the benefits that her family deserves since
her husband died.
“I tried to claim it, but none to avail because my husband is already dead. As far as my husband knows, we would continue to claim the benefits. Then this happened. Everything that my husband had saved was gone,” told Isay Reyes in a Bandila news report last September 21.
Just
like Amelita’s husband, retired SPO3 Narciso Dela Cruz became one of the
beneficiaries of TPPD after he had an accident in a police operation in 1989.
“After my operation, I could no longer work. When you are on a wheelchair and are no longer in service, you will be retired as one of the beneficiaries of TPPD,” he said in the same interview.
“What
we are experiencing now is an act of discrimination and oppression by depriving
our rights,” retired policeman Hendrick Dacuyan
said in a Facebook post.
“Sadly all of us are not equally protected by law in terms of benefits,” he added.
Dacuyan
said the TPPD beneficiaries who are entitled to the pension of the remainder of
the five years guaranteed period is “oppressive, inhumane and
unconstitutional” for those police officers who put their lives above and
beyond the call of duty for their country.
Who may file a claim
or apply for TPPD Benefits?
An
application for TPPD may be filed by the Uniformed PNP member himself or in
case of incapacity, his duly authorized representative.
When a disabled uniformed PNP member refuses to apply for the TPPD, he or she shall be separated or attrited under the provisions of Section 29 of Republic Act Number 8551.
Under
the newly released Fiscal Directive
Number 2019-10 of the PNP, the TPPD-separated or retired will no longer
receive a pension increase.
According to Republic Act 8551, the TPPD retiree’s pension is a lifetime, but when the police die, their family can only get five years’ worth of pension.