NMIRF: No double-dipping, period

Unperturbed by a lawsuit filed by retiree and former congressman Thomas Pangelinan, the NMI Retirement Fund stands pat on its position to withhold any pension to “double-dippers.”

“Nobody can double-dip. The law is very clear on that. We can’t waive that even for elected officials. No way,” said Fund administrator Karl T. Reyes yesterday.

“Retirement is not a give-away program. You can only earn what you contribute,” he added.

This after Pangelinan filed a lawsuit last Friday against the Fund and Reyes in his official capacity for alleged illegal withholding of his annuity from January 2000 and February 2004.

Pangelinan accused the Fund of misapplying the law on double-dipping.

Pangelinan, who retired after 25 years from government service in July 1995, said that the Fund had withheld his monthly pension of $1,393 from January 2000 when he was elected and served as congressman from Precinct 4 to January 2002.

At the same time, the Fund stopped giving him his retirement annuities during his term as Department of Land and Natural Resources secretary from February 2002 until his resignation in February 2004.

During this period, Pangelinan received his salary and was re-enrolled as a contributing Fund member.

He said his benefits were re-calculated to include the period of contributions as an elected representative and as DLNR Secretary, resulting in “improperly and illegally recalculated” monthly pension of $1,799.

Pangelinan asked the Court to declare Fund’s action as illegal.

Meantime, Reyes said that the CNMI Constitution only allows double-dipping up to a maximum of 60 days after the member’s retirement date.

“This applies to everybody except if you’re a teacher, nurse, or doctor,” said Reyes.

He said other retirees can actually go back to government service as in the case of Pangelinan, “but you’ve got to forfeit your pension.”

This is due to the fact that re-employed retirees receive their salaries and earn retirement benefits again.

In this case, he said, pension is stopped and retirement benefits are re-calculated.

“You can’t have both pension and salary and contribution benefits at the same time,” insisted Reyes.

Reyes said that he was not aware about Pangelinan’s claim for 2000 and 2001 as he became the administrator only in 2002.

Reyes also said that he does not know much about Pangelinan’s case “because he never exhausted the administrative process.”

“They didn’t seek all administrative means. That’s why we don’t know about it. We just learned it from the newspapers,” he said.

Pangelinan is represented by his legal counsel and former Attorney General Robert Torres.