The Social Security System, which manages the pension fund of more than 31 million private sector employees, has discovered that some people will go to the extent of declaring a spouse dead, even if she is alive and well, to get money from the fund.
SSS said it was prepared to take these fraudulent claimants to court and recently scored a favorable decision from La Union municipal trial court against a husband who was found guilty of falsifying public documents to declare his wife deceased.
MTCC Branch II presiding judge Edilberta Casiano convicted SSS claimant Noel Laconsay to a maximum imprisonment of four years and nine months, for purporting to be the surviving spouse and beneficiary of a deceased SSS member who turned out to be alive.
Laconsay, a resident of Gonzales, Tubao, La Union was found guilty of falsification of public documents for submitting spurious documents to support his SSS funeral and death claim for a certain Maura Apurado, whom he claimed as his deceased wife.
SSS said Laconsay, who represented himself as the widower, had personally filed claims by producing a fake funeral receipt, a falsified death certificate and true copies of the marriage certificate and birth certificate of the minor child of Maura. He also presented fake identification cards.
SSS discovered Laconsay’s scheme under its anti-fraud program. “The timely discovery of the spurious claim prevented us from issuing the check. But even without financial damage, we pursued the case against Mr. Laconsay. May his conviction be a strong warning we have strengthened our anti-fraud programs”, said Rogelio Atos, cluster legal head of SSS Luzon North.
Laconsay was also ordered to pay a fine of P5,000 plus the cost of the suit for violation of the Social Security Act and the Revised Penal Code.