The chairwoman of the Senate Fiscal Affairs Committee said the Fund is not the only agency that has to survive, but the entire government as well.
In the current fiscal year, she said, there is no money to pay the Retirement Fund.
The FY 2010 budget proposal, for its part, states that it has to be taken from somewhere to comply with the court ruling, which ordered the government to pay the Fund $231 million and a 16 percent employer contribution rate.
“But where are we going to get the money? I don’t know,” said Pangelinan, D-Saipan.
“They should have listened to us and resolved this issue before the judgment came out,” she said referring to the Retirement Fund.
The Legislature, she noted, was “not the one being sued.”
Pangelinan reiterated that the Fund should have sat down with the administration instead of taking the government to court.
“Fixing this problem is a political decision that has to be made by all government branches,” she said.
Pangelinan said the Senate is not going to the adopt House Concurrent Resolution 16-4, which was approved by the House of Representatives last Tuesday.
The resolution earmarks $1.6 million for the Retirement Fund from the $162.82 million in budgetary sources identified for FY 2010 .
Pangelinan said they are expecting the Department of Finance to advise them of any changes in the revenue projections and the proposed allocation of expenditures.
