SEN. Sherwin Gatchalian said a proposal to lower the compulsory retirement age of government employees “should entail careful analysis” to make it sustainable.
Gatchalian said “it seems everyone supports” the lower optional and compulsory retirement age, but the sustainability of funds should be ensured.
“The sustainability of such a pension design boils down to the computation of the life of the fund. Also, if you want to maintain the life of the fund, I want to know how much the government is going to subsidize in terms of equity as both proposals call for an early payout or bigger payout,” Gatchalian said.
Gatchalian filed Senate Bill No. 944 and Sen. Joel Villanueva filed Senate Bill No. 935 which both seek to lower the optional retirement age of government employees to 60 from 65, and the compulsory retirement age to 60 from 65.
In Gatchalian’s explanatory note, he said the proposed bill “would allow government employees to fully reap the fruits of their retirement benefits after dedicating long years in government service. Furthermore, the retirees would be given a chance to venture into other fields of endeavor, making them self-sufficient and financially independent,” he said.
He said this will also help ease the employment problems of the country as there will be more vacant positions in the government.
Gatchalian also asked the Civil Service Commission to study the pension system of different countries and determine the best practices “so we will have an idea of how other jurisdictions are doing this.”
