Office of the P.A.'s Site

It was during this time frame that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo started paying off the previous 16 years of accumulated arrears in mandated benefits - specifically old-age pensions, death pensions and educational benefits - owed by the national government to veterans and retirees. In these 2 years, it is estimated that the national government paid off P3.6B of the P5.5B total arrears in the mentioned benefits and pensions, together with the firm promise to fully pay the balance by the end of the year 2008.

Legislators also tried to create new laws that would address the growing arrears in the administrative disability pensions mandated by RA 7696, on which not a single centavo of budget funds had been appropriated since 1994, when the law was approved.

The OPAVA sought to lobby for these benefits from the Philippine government as well as to add its voice to the continuing lobby for equity veterans benefits from the USA, and to start up new programs for the benefit of war veterans' descendants. At the same time, the OP-OPAVA-NBI in tandem sought to create awareness of the multifarious problems caused by unscrupulous fixers in veterans offices who had been reported to be victimizing war veterans and widows of their rightful pensions and benefits.

The OPAVA participated actively in all these and other concerns of veterans, as shown in the posted photos and video clips.