A Facebook post is claiming that senator-elect Vicente ‘Tito’ Sotto III will file a bill lowering the early retirement age to 39 years old. This is false.
Published on June 22, the FB page’s post carried a photo of the former senate president with the headline:
“Sotto itutulak early retirement bill sa mga 39-anyos! (Sotto to push an early retirement bill for those aged 39)
Part of the lengthy caption read:
Isasampa niya sa pagbubukas ng 20th Congress sa Hulyo ang panukala para makapag-retiro na ang mga empleyado kahit 39-anyos pa lamang.”
(He will file the bill when the 20th Congress opens in July so employees can retire even at 39 years old.)
A news report that appeared in tabloid Abante was used as source for the post. The article falsely reported that Sotto talked about his plans to file an early retirement bill during an interview with radio station DWIZ on June 21.
It also quoted the incoming senator as saying that based on his team’s research, 30% of the country’s labor force is in favor of lowering the early retirement age which is currently pegged at 60.
There is no record of such an interview with Sotto. Neither is there any study that can be searched to back the results of an alleged research on the preferences of Filipino employees on early retirement.
Under Republic Act (R.A.) No. 7641 or the Retirement Pay Law, the voluntary or early retirement age is set at 60 years old for private-sector employees. Compulsory retirement age is 65.
R.A. No. 8291 or the Government Service Insurance Act of 1997 has similar provisions. In 2024, House Bill No. 206 sought to amend the law by lowering the voluntary or early retirement age to 56. It only passed on second reading in the House of Representatives during the 19th Congress.
A similar post made on the same day was posted on a Sen. Bato Dela Rosa FB fan page, which gained traction with 8,868 reactions, 3,537 comments and 4,583 shares.
The post, published by FB page Jigger EVE TV (created Jan. 4, 2019 as jigger) has so far garnered 813 reactions, 672 comments and 82 shares. The page, which changed its name on June 21, 2023, has around 76,000 likes and 363,046 followers.
