His strict adherence to the law and implementing proper promotional processes for uniformed personnel is what he suspects to be behind a smear campaign against him, which is being carried out by organized crime groups that also send him death threats.
This prompted National Police Commission (Napolcom) Vice Chairperson and Executive Officer (VCEO) Alberto Bernardo to come out Sunday as he talked to the DAILY TRIBUNE to explain the issues hurled against him, including his employment status over the point that he had already retired in 2023, wete all above board.
Bernardo said the organized crime group seemed to have penetrated the Commission, as they focus on questioning his employment status and that he has been receiving double compensation for his salary as NAPOLCOM VCEO and his retirement benefits.
"Aside from getting death threats (from crime groups), they are harping on my employment status," Bernardo said.
In the documents he provided, one of which is his letter to former Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos Jr., who is also the NAPOLCOM' s Chairman, Bernardo said he did not "end his term of office from the NAPOLCOM but merely opted not to continue his membership with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS)."
Another document , a letter Bernardo wrote to GSIS President and General Manager (PGM) Jose Arnulfo A. Veloso dated August 20, 2024, showed he informed the GSIS that he has been in the government service for over three decades, starting in 1987, and held various key positions classified as career service positions, "the longest having been with the Office of the President from 1994 up until March 8, 2022, when he was appointed for a fixed term of six (6) years as Commissioner, VCEO of the NAPOLCOM."
Bernardo explained that with his appointment in the NAPOLCOM, he had transitioned from occupying a career service position to a non-career position with a fixed term until March 7, 2028.
"Being appointed as such when he was sixty-two (62) years old, as a matter of course, he reached the mandatory retirement age midway through his 6-year fixed term of office," Bernardo's letter read.
"In October 2023, the undersigned, at the age of sixty-four (64) and while in continuous active government service, opted not to continue his membership with the GSIS and applied for the availment of the retirement benefits due him under Republic Act No. 8291 or the GSIS Act of 1997. The availment thereof was in honest belief that even without gap in the continuity of government service, being duly appointed for a full 6-year term of office, the undersigned may avail the same having met the requisite length of government service and years of age, and non-receipt of permanent total disability benefits," Bernardo farther explained.
Bernardo said this would explain that all issues about his employment status are already settled.
"It bears noting that receiving retirement benefits by an eligible government official or employee while still in active service does not violate the constitutional proscription against double compensation. Retirement benefits are rewards for services, while salary is compensation for services," Bernardo explained, as was also the point of his letters to Abalos and Veloso.
"Pursuant to Section 8, paragraph 2, Article IX-B, of the 1987 Constitution, "Pensions or gratuities shall not be considered as additional, double, or indirect compensation." The same is also provided in EO No. 292 or the Administrative Code of 1987.4: "This provision simply means that a retiree receiving pension or gratuity can continue to receive such pension or gratuity even if he accepts another government position to which another compensation is attached," Bernardo said, referring to provisions in the Constitution.
Meanwhile, Bernardo also revealed that issues about why he held temporarily the promotions of some uniformed personnel will surely be taken advantage of by his detractors.
But his move, he explained, is for the new DILG Secretary Juanito Victor "Jonvic" Remulla to take a hand on that decision.
"They (detractors) would make some move, na pagsabugin kami (in the future)," Bernardo believed.