THE Military and Uniformed Personnel for United Philippines (MUP-UP), an alliance of retired soldiers, police officers, and other uniformed service members, denounced what it described as threats to revoke or suspend their pensions following their participation in anti-corruption campaigns.<\/p>\n
In a statement released over the weekend and through posts on its official social media pages, MUP-UP said the alleged intimidation tactics were \u201cunpatriotic\u201d and undermined the constitutional rights of retired personnel to civic engagement and freedom of expression.<\/p>\n
The group maintained that its advocacy for transparency and accountability was lawful, peaceful, and rooted in the same values that guided members during active service.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo threaten the pensions we rightfully earned after decades of service is to betray those very principles and to discourage others from demanding transparency,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
The retirees\u2019 statements surfaced after reports that the government was studying potential pension sanctions for retired officials accused of spreading \u201cmisinformation\u201d or making \u201cseditious\u201d remarks against state institutions.<\/p>\n
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By signing up with an email address, I acknowledge that I have read and agree to the Terms of Service<\/a> and Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n Several MUP-UP members expressed concern that such measures were being used to silence critics of corruption.<\/p>\n \u201cThose who served the country with honor and loyalty should not be threatened for advocating clean governance,\u201d read a statement posted on the MUP 4 United PH \u2013 Military and Uniformed Personnel (MUP) \u201cServing Still\u201d page. \u201cThreatening our pensions is not patriotism \u2014 it is fear of the truth. We remain loyal to the Republic, not to corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n In related discussion threads, retirees said they viewed the threats as attempts to stifle dissent within their ranks. \u201cWe have every right to call out wrongdoing in government,\u201d one commenter said. \u201cOur loyalty did not end when we retired \u2014 it continues in protecting the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n Defense and military officials disputed MUP-UP\u2019s claims. The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) dismissed the reports as \u201cbaseless and misleading,\u201d saying that no official order or proposal had been issued to penalize or suspend pensions of retired personnel over political statements.<\/p>\n AFP spokesman Col. Xerxes Trinidad said the military \u201crespects the rights of retirees to free speech\u201d but reminded former service members to exercise such rights responsibly and in a manner that does not \u201cerode public trust in the institution or promote disinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe AFP does not and will not sanction any move to revoke pensions on the basis of opinion or advocacy,\u201d Trinidad said in a text message to reporters. \u201cOur retirees remain part of the military family, and we acknowledge their invaluable service to the nation. We only ask that they use their platforms to promote unity and truth.\u201d<\/p>\n The Department of National Defense (DND) echoed the AFP\u2019s position, saying it has not authorized any inquiry or administrative action targeting retirees\u2019 pensions.<\/p>\n In a separate statement, DND spokesman Arsenio Andolong said the department \u201cvalues open discourse and constructive criticism\u201d but cautioned against the \u201cspread of false information that could harm institutional integrity.\u201d<\/p>\n Malaca\u00f1ang also denied any directive to suppress dissent, saying any disciplinary action involving pensions would require \u201cdue process and adherence to existing laws.\u201d<\/p>\n The MUP-UP reiterated its call for authorities to look into the reported threats and engage the organization in dialogue rather than intimidation.<\/p>\n It also urged the media and civil society groups to help protect the rights of retired personnel and ensure that those who served the nation can continue to advocate for accountability without fear.<\/p>\n \u201cRetirement does not mean silence,\u201d MUP-UP said. \u201cThose who defended democracy in uniform will continue to defend it as citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE Military and Uniformed Personnel for United Philippines (MUP-UP), an alliance of retired soldiers, police officers, and other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[95,138,30693,246,111,139,69,2180,244,245,675,25319,26452],"class_list":{"0":"post-102934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-and","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-denounce","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-pension","16":"tag-personal-finance","17":"tag-personalfinance","18":"tag-police","19":"tag-retired","20":"tag-threats"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}