Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Batasan Hills, Quezon City

TWENTIETH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL No. 207

Introduced by
ACT Teachers Party-List Rep. ANTONIO L. TINIO
and KABATAAN Party-List Rep. RENEE LOUISE M. CO

AN ACT
LOWERING THE OPTIONAL RETIREMENT AGE OF
GOVERNMENT WORKERS FROM SIXTY (60) YEARS TO FIFTY-SIX
(56) YEARS, AMENDING FOR THE PURPOSE SECTION 13-A OF
REPUBLIC ACT 8291, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS “THE
GOVERNMENT SERVICE INSURANCE SYSTEM ACT OF 1997”

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This bill proposes to lower the optional retirement age for government
workers which include the public school teachers from 60 to 56 years old.

Earlier retirement is one of the demands resoundingly voiced during formal
and informal consultations with public school teachers conducted by this
Representation. Teachers protest that, with the hazards and level of stress
accompanying their duties, compulsory retirement at the late stage of 65 years
old will not allow them to fully enjoy their retirement years. Teachers usually
leave the profession not with satisfied smiles but assaulted by various illnesses;


whatever retirement benefits they receive will be spent not for their rest or their
own businesses but solely for medical bills.

Teaching in our country’s public schools is indeed a challenging
occupation, with duties claiming much from teachers not just physically, but
emotionally and psychologically as well. The Philippines ranks among the
countries with the most dismal statistics descriptive of teachers’ working
conditions, with average pupil-teacher ratios from 31 students (primary level) to
45 students to each teacher (secondary level), and average class size of 42.4
(primary) and 43.7 (secondary). (UNESCO, 2015) Officially, instruction time is
six hours each day, but actually goes up to more than eight including advisory
loads. Teachers work in 40 out of 54 weeks per year, but they have duties during
vacation months, and even beyond the classroom and the school premises.

Indeed, when compared to figures worldwide, it is harder to be a public
school teacher in the Philippines than in most countries. However, our teachers
retire five years later than those in most countries. Retirement age is 60 in most
North American, European, and Asian countries.

Respect and humane consideration demand that a person of 55 years—a
few years shy of being a senior citizen—should not be required to perform the
arduous functions expected of a public school teacher in the Philippines. At such
stage of their lives, public school teachers should at least be given the choice if
they wish to rest from the profession and enjoy more good and healthy years
ahead.

As rigorous work and the physical and psychological burdens it causes
likewise applies to all those working in government, this measure also extends

the benefit of earlier retirement to the rest of the employees in the civil service.

This bill was approved on third reading in the 17" and 19" Congresses.


For the foregoing reasons, the passage of this bill is sought.

- /

Rep. ANTONIO L. TINIO Rep. RENEE LOUISE M. CO
ACT Teachers Party-List KABATAAN Party-List


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Batasan Hills, Quezon City

TWENTIETH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL No. 207

Introduced by
ACT Teachers Party-List Rep. ANTONIO L. TINIO
and KABATAAN Party-List Rep. RENEE LOUISE M. CO

AN ACT
LOWERING THE OPTIONAL RETIREMENT AGE OF GOVERNMENT
WORKERS FROM SIXTY (60) YEARS TO FIFTY-SIX (56) YEARS,
AMENDING FOR THE PURPOSE SECTION 13-A OF REPUBLIC ACT 8291,
OTHERWISE KNOWN AS “THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE INSURANCE
SYSTEM ACT OF 1997”

Be it enacted in the Senate and the House of Representatives of the Philippines in
Congress assembled:

SECTION 1. Section 13-A of Republic Act 8291, otherwise known as “The
Government Service Insurance System Act of 1997” is hereby amended to read as
follows:

SEC. 13-A. Conditions for Entitlement. — A member who retires trom the service
shall be entitled to the retirement benefits enumerated in paragraph (a) of Section
13 hereof: Provided, That SUCH MEMBER:

(1) [he] has rendered at least fifteen (15) years of service:

(2) [he] is at least [sixty (60)] FIFTY-SIX (56) years of age at the time of
retirement; and

(3) [he] is not receiving a monthly pension benefit from permanent total
disability.


SEC. 2. One-time offset fund. To prevent a substantive impact on the actuarial life of
the Social Insurance Fund of the GSIS, there is hereby appropriated an amount of Two
Hundred Million Pesos (?200,000,000) as a one-time offset fund.

SEC. 3. Repealing Clause. All laws, decrees, orders, rules and regulations, or other
issuances or parts thereof inconsistent with the provisions of this Act are hereby
repealed or modified accordingly.

SEC. 4. Effectivity. This Act shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in
the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.

Approved,