The President’s critics can turn this matter around and claim that at least Mr. Aquino does not base his decisions on populist considerations. But that would not hold.
The increase of the monthly pension of Social Security System cannot be dismissed as a populist issue. It is one of legitimate need, timeliness, and most of all, compassion.
The President this week vetoed House Bill 5842 which would have given a P2,000 across-the-board increase in retired members’ monthly pension, and which would have raised the minimum pension to P3,200 from the current P1,200.
In vetoing the measure, Mr. Aquino said that an increase would deplete the SSS’ funds in 13 years.
Administration spokesman Barry Gutierrez had the gall to say that the President rejected the bill, set to favor two million pensioners and their dependents, for the sake of the 31 million members of the SSS who are contributing to the fund.
The message is that the President has chosen the long-term viability of the fund over the short-term needs of the men and women who toiled in their productive years for some measure of security in their retirement.
“The government would be irresponsible if it allowed the depletion of the funds,” another spokesman, Secretary Herminio Coloma, said.
But what is irresponsible is not being able to address the immediate need of the pensioners who have to sustain their needs, amid increasing costs and urgency, with their meager pension.
The veto is also seen as ignominious given the extraordinarily high salaries and bonuses of the SSS’ executives. If they were truly excelling at their jobs for which they are paid so much, they would have come up with ways to prolong the fund’s actuarial life without sacrificing the short-term needs of the pensioners.
Then again, why should the President care when he knows family money will take care of him in his old age?