LAOAG CITY, (PNA) – The approved arrearages of the Total Administrative Disability (TAD) pensions for surviving qualified World War II veterans covering the period 1994 to 2002 have started to be deposited to individual bank accounts of the veterans since last week.
This happy development that would elate the veterans and their kin was confirmed by Yvonne Paz Arizabal, officer – in – charge of the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) based in Batac City, Ilocos Norte.
“Based on the guidelines forwarded to us, the start of the release of the TAD pension arrearages for the qualified World War II was the first week of October this year,” she said.
“The amount will be automatically reflected in the savings accounts of the qualified WWII veteran recipients,” she added.
She estimated that less than a hundred of war veterans in Ilocos Norte are qualified to receive the TAD pension.
For Region 1, a total of 344 WWII veterans are qualified to receive the TAD pensions’ back pay.
In Ilocos Norte, she said that the TAD Pension arrearages were already deposited in the local branches of the following: Maybank, Asian United Bank (AUB), Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), AFPSLAI Bank, AMWSLAI Bank and COWSLAI Bank.
The same benefit will also be disposited next week in the local branches of the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and Philippine Veterans Bank (PVB).
In a telephone interview, Maria Juanita Fajardo-Rivera, head of the PVAO’s strategic communication section, recalled that President Aquino had authorized recently the release of P3.1 billion to pay TAD pension arrearages to about 18,000 WW II veterans from 1994 to 2002.
She said that the payments of the TAD pension will be done through deposit in the veterans’ individual pension savings accounts.
Rivera noted that since the enactment of Republic Act No. 7696 authorizing the grant of additional TAD pension of P1,700 in 1994 to veterans aged 70 years old, the government started paying monthly TAD pension in 2010 to WWII veterans who are 80 years old and above.
Subsequently, partial payments of TAD arrears for the years 2003 – 2009 were made in the total amount of P4.05 billion, reducing to only P3.1 billion the unpaid pension obligations to war veterans for years 1994 to 2002.
She assured World War II veterans that they will be receiving their TAD arrearages from their respective savings accounts with their pension servicing banks not later than October 2013.
She also warned these qualified veterans and their families not to entertain claims fixers who deceive veterans into believing that they were the ones who facilitated the release of TAD arrears and thus demand 50% of the veterans’ receivables.