General pay status in active service
- Section 2 provides that the pay and allowances of military personnel are prescribed by law, and that a person in the active military service is entitled to receive pay and allowances corresponding to rank or grade unless the pay and allowances have not accrued or have been forfeited under this Act or any other law.
- Section 3 requires that the Army be paid in such manner that arrears never exceed two months, unless circumstances make further arrears unavoidable.
- Section 4 prohibits separation of any person from active service for purposes of pay and allowances before the date the individual receives or becomes legally chargeable with notice of separation, whether by resignation, discharge, reversion to inactive status, retirement or dismissal.
- Section 4 provides that the date when the person becomes legally chargeable with notice of separation is determined in accordance with pertinent Army regulations.
Missing, interned, captured, or besieged cases
- Section 5 states that a person in the active service who is officially reported as missing, missing in action, interned in a neutral country, or captured by an enemy is entitled to receive or have credited to his account the same pay and allowances he was entitled to at the beginning of the absence or may become entitled to thereafter while so absent.
- Section 5 bars the entitlement when the person has been officially reported as absent from post of duty without authority.
- Section 5 provides that expiration of the agreed terms of service during the absence does not terminate the right to receive such pay and allowances.
- Section 5 requires repayment when proper authority later determines that the person was absent without authority, making the person indebted to the Government for the amounts paid or credited during the absence.
Support payments and insurance premiums
- Section 6 authorizes the Secretary of National Defense (or persons he designates) to direct that pay and allowances necessary for reasonable support of dependents and/or payment of insurance premiums be paid by the appropriate disbursing officer.
- Section 6 limits such directed payments to a period of twelve months from the date of commencement of absence.
- Section 6 requires reversion to Philippine Army appropriations of any insurance premiums paid by the Government after the declared date of death and unearned on insurance issued on the life of a person.
Twelve-month review and conclusive determinations
- Section 7 authorizes the Chief of Staff to direct continuance of missing status or make a finding of death when the twelve-month period from commencement of absence is about to expire and no official report of death or internment has been received.
- Section 7 states that continuance is ordered when the person may be reasonably presumed to be living; the Chief of Staff orders a case review whenever warranted by information received or other circumstances.
- Section 7 provides that a finding of death must include the date death is presumed to have occurred for purposes of termination of crediting pay and allowances, settlement of accounts, and payment of death gratuities and other benefits.
- Section 7 sets the presumed death date as either (a) the day following expiration of the twelve months’ absence, or (b) in continued-missing-status cases, a day determined by the Chief of Staff.
- Section 9 makes the Chief of Staff’s determination of a person’s armed-forces status, the fact of dependency, directions on continuance/suspension/resumption of pay and allowances, or the finding of death conclusive.
Unauthorized absence rules for pay and allowances
- Section 10 provides that neither pay nor allowances accrue to a person in military service during unauthorized absence, unless excused as unavoidable.
- Section 11 provides that entitlement depends on an administrative determination whether absence is authorized, and if not, whether it is absence without leave or desertion.
- Section 11 authorizes withholding of pay and allowances in the absence of a court-martial finding if the fact of unauthorized absence appears on the morning report of the relevant company, battery, troop or squadron.
- Section 12 requires computation of unauthorized absence for purposes of withholding pay and allowances to follow rules and regulations promulgated by the Chief of Staff with approval of the Secretary of National Defense.
Absence due to disease from misconduct
- Section 13 withholds entitlement to pay and allowances for absence from regular duties caused by effects of a disease (distinguished from injury) directly attributed to and immediately following the person’s own intemperate use of alcoholic liquor or habit-forming drugs, except as provided in sections fourteen through sixteen.
- Section 14 withholds entitlement to pay and allowances for absence from regular duties caused by the direct effects of a venereal disease due to the person’s own misconduct, except as provided by its proviso.
- Section 14 allows the statutory forfeiture rule to be qualified by requiring that the absence be within one year following the appearance of the initial symptoms of the venereal disease, regardless of whether the initial symptoms appear before or after entry into service.
- Section 15 provides that when pay and allowances are forfeited for more than one month at any one time under sections thirteen or fourteen, the person is paid five pesos for each full month of forfeiture.
- Section 16 requires that the period of absence and its cause be determined through procedures and regulations prescribed by the Chief of Staff, and declares such determination final and conclusive.
Awaiting trial; civil detention; arrest and release
- Section 17 grants an officer awaiting trial by court-martial (or the final result thereof) full pay and allowances for the pendency of the case unless suspended from office by the President.
- Section 17 provides that an officer suspended by the President continues receiving pay and allowances if the President so directs in the suspension order.
- Section 18 provides that an enlisted man awaiting trial by court-martial (or its result) is not entitled to pay and allowances until the trial result is known unless the Chief of Staff directs continuance of pay.
- Section 19 provides that an enlisted man in desertion or absent without leave who surrenders or is apprehended after expiration of his term of enlistment does not have pay and allowances accruing again until restored to a duty status.
- Section 20 provides that when an enlisted man’s term of enlistment expires while in confinement awaiting trial or serving sentence, pay and allowances terminate on the date of expiration and do not accrue again until restored to a duty status.
- Section 21 provides that officers and enlisted men in arrest and confinement by civil authorities, temporarily released on bail, or convicted by civil courts and released under bond pending final appeal receive no pay and allowances for the period of such absence; unconditonal release without trial or release after trial and acquittal restores entitlement for the period of absence.
- Section 22 provides that an officer or enlisted man discharged or released from active service while in the hands of civil authorities awaiting trial is paid only to the date of arrest and is not paid travel pay; if acquitted, entitlement extends to the date of discharge or relief from active duty.
- Section 23 states that notwithstanding section twenty-one, an officer on authorized leave and an enlisted man on furlough who is arrested by civil authorities and convicted is entitled to pay until the expiration of the leave or furlough, respectively.
Effectivity
- Section 24 provides that the Act takes effect upon approval.
- The Act was approved on June 14, 1947.