"Rationale: Since almost all people look forward to retirement as a moment when they will finally be able to relax and enjoy the pleasure of having more time for themselves and their families away from the pressures of daily work, the Philippine Government takes the responsibility of providing a better life for the retirees of our society in line with its Constitutional mandate. However, without a dependable retirement plan, they are not assured a comfortable and leisurely retirement. >This proposed measure seeks to introduce the Personal Equity and Retirement Account (PERA) which we hope will be accepted as an essential and valuable tool in encouraging savings for our people's retirement years by providing a financially-sec ure retirementthrough a sound investment and planning scheme through savings, and a flexible and dynamic investment scheme that will benefit a good part of our working populace who are neither members of government funds and who have very limited options."