The alleged withholding of P59.8 million allowance for the members of SAF will be investigated by the Senate.
SAF- Senator Panfilo Lacson filed a resolution on April 18, prompting the Senate to conduct an inquiry concerning the alleged withholding of the daily subsistence allowance for the Special Action Force (SAF) troopers amounting to P59.8 Million.
The Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous drugs was tasked to handle the said investigation, as stated under Senate Resolution 712.
Based on a report from PhilStar, Lacson cited records proving that about 4,000 elite members of Philippine National Police only received their supposed monthly additional subsistence allowance (ASA) for only 8 months since 2016, specifically on January 2016, and January to July 2017.
In a statement, the Senator clarified that the proposal of the remedial legislation is to address the issue and prevent the recurrence of the same incident that may cause a threat to the morale of the SAF Troopers who are frontiers in fighting crimes.
“We cannot allow, yet again, another injustice to be committed against our heroes in uniform who are in the forefront of our fight against the ills of terrorism and criminality, lest we risk demoralization within their ranks,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ronald Dela Rosa, outgoing chief of the Philippine National police said via television interview, that approximately P37 million of the missing allowance have been returned and distributed to the SAF members who have not received the money.
As stated in the report, the remaining P22 million worth of allowance has not yet been recovered. Dela Rosa reportedly relieved former SAF chief Director Benjamin Lusad and three other police officers following the SAF Officer’s filing of plunder complaint against them with regards to the missing allowances and hazardous pays.
