Former PNB employees troop to the Supreme Court to urge it to resolve the case as it has stalled the release of their benefits. (Photo by FRANCES AGBAYANI, Inquirer intern)

MANILA, Philippines—Nearly 200 Philippine National Bank (PNB) senior citizen retirees asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to compel the former state-owned institution to release their withheld cost-of-living and special amelioration allowances spanning seven years from 1989 to 1996.

The former PNB personnel, who gathered in a rally in front of the high tribunal, were previously assigned at the head office of the bank, and in its branches in Metro Manila and in the provinces.

Lawyer Goldelio Rivera, the lead petitioner and legal counsel representing the former PNBemployees, said they gathered to express frustration over PNB’s “apparent delaying tactics” regarding the retirees’ cost-of-living allowances (COLAs).

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These allowances are equivalent to 40 percent of their basic salary.

They are also seeking payment of their 10-percent special amelioration allowances (SAAs).

“We just want to express our sentiment to the apparent delayed tactics of the PNB,” Rivera told the Inquirer in an interview.

“I would like to make sure that I respect the Supreme Court. As an officer of the court, this is just to express our sentiment against the PNB,” he noted.

The legal dispute dates back to 2006, when Riverafiled before a Pasay court a class suit by way of a petition for mandamus against the bank.

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In 2023, the Supreme Court ordered PNB to pay its former employees their withheld COLAs, SAAs and back pay, but the bank filed a motion for reconsideration—stalling the release of the long-awaited benefits.

Mariano Soria, a former employee who served PNB for 34 years and acts as the group’s spokesperson, urged the high tribunal to heed their appeal and resolve the case immediately.

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He said that many of their fellow retirees are already very old and yet, until now, they have not received what has been owed to them for a long, long time.

“So many of us are dying already. Imagine, we are 8,000 claimants, and look at how few of us are left—and this is nationwide,” Soria told the Inquirer.

“We are just praying that this gets resolved because we’ll all be gone before we even receive anything. So we hope that, even if there are only a few of us senior citizens left, we get noticed,” he pleaded.

The rally of PNB’s former workers about their continuous struggle for withheld allowances coincided with the bank’s recent 110th anniversary celebration.

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—Report from FRANCES AGBAYANI, INQUIRER.net intern