This file photo shows SSS pensioner Cecilio Carog in a protest action in front of SSS office in J.P. Laurel Avenue in Davao City in 2013. After almost four years, the pension increase for SSS members are still being debated. (Medel V. Hernani/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines— The Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research, Inc., a labor non-government organization, said that Social Security System can wholly finance the P2,000 pension increase.
“It has already been established that the agency’s income and investments can wholly financed the much needed P2,000 across-the-board pension hike,” EILER deputy executive director Rochelle Porras said in a statement Thursday.
Porras has criticized Department of Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno’s proposal to increase the SSS pension hike based on tax reforms.
“There is absolutely no need to raise the members’ monthly contributions and the President should grant the pension hike not just because it is his campaign promise,” Porras said.
“It is about time that our social security system should be oriented towards providing genuine social protection for our people,” she added, asserting that SSS has enough funds to shoulder the proposed P2,000 hike for its 2.2 million retired members.
EILER scored the SSS for its so-called “mismanagement” when the agency discovered remittances in 2015 which were not recorded during 1980’s which resulted in an increase of total retirement benefits, allegedly shortening again their actuarial fund life.
“One must instead take a closer look at the agency’s collection from employers, its membership coverage, the ongoing members contribution verification, its total operating expenses, the humongous bonuses for its executives, and where SSS is investing,” Porras pointed out. (davaotoday.com)
