Press Release
January 16, 2019

Survivorship benefits to be granted to children of deceased retired officials of constitutional offices

A bill seeking to grant survivorship benefits to dependent children of a deceased retired member of the Commission on Audit, Civil Service Commission, Commission on Elections and the Ombudsman, who is a solo parent, is now pending on second reading in the Senate.

Senator Antonio "Sonny" Trillanes IV, chairman of the Senate Committee on Civil Service, Government Reorganization and Professional Regulation and sponsor of Senate Bill No. 1917, said the measure also sought to extend survivorship benefits to the surviving parents of the retired official or two of his nominated persons.

Currently, he explained, Republic Act No. 10084 only provides benefits to the surviving legitimate spouse of the deceased retired officials.

"The (current) law does not recognize the circumstances of a deceased official who may be unmarried or who may be a solo parent," Trillanes said in his sponsorship speech.

"To address this gap, SBN 1917 seeks to extend the benefits of the law to the dependent children of an official who is a solo parent, or the surviving parents, or up to two nominated persons of the deceased retiree who died without issue," he added.

Once the proposed legislation is passed into law, he said the dependents would be entitled to receive on a monthly basis all the retirement benefits that the deceased retiree was receiving at the time of his or her death.

According to Trillanes, the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) is in full "accord with the passage of the bill."

Sen. Loren Legarda, who introduced the bill, said SBN 1917 recognizes the "emerging nuances in the set-up of modern-day Filipino families, and heeds the call for fairness and equality to the diseased members of the constitutionally-created offices who were unmarried or were solo parents.

She said the measure had been passed in the Lower House.

"Through this bill, we would be able to help correct this apparent oversight in the law and uplift the plight and improve the welfare of the families who would be left behind by the retired officials of the constitutional offices," Trillanes said.

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