IT might have been a long wait – two decades in fact, but for some 145 employees of the state-owned Intercontinental Broadcasting Corp. (IBC-13), they finally received their retirement pay.

According to the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had released the long-overdue benefits for the broadcast network's retired employees.

The employees had been waiting for the payout for more than two decades.

According to the PCO, some 25 former IBC-13 workers already died while waiting for their retirement pay.

PCO Secretary Cheloy Garafil said the President made a marching order to settle the claims of IBC retirees.

“The President gave the instruction to help resolve their claims as addressing the welfare of media workers is one of the cornerstones of his administration and of the PCO. So, it is a great honor for me to be able to be part of this much-awaited and much-deserved awarding of benefits to our colleagues in the media,” Garafil said.

IBC-13 President and CEO Jimmie Policarpio said about 200 families benefited from the settlement of the retirement benefits, noting that most of the remaining retirees are already on maintenance medicines or facing a host of medical problems while some are “gravely ill.