PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III’s veto of a bill increasing the pensions of retirees continued to elicit criticism with a youth group assailing Aquino’s insult to the elderly and a bishop saying the act only showed the Chief Executive’s lack of empathy for a suffering people.
Vencer Crisostomo, chairman of the youth group Anakbayan, said Aquino’s offer of a P500 hike instead of the proposed P2,000 SSS pension increase was an “insult” to the elderly.
Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo echoed the criticism and said Aquino’s action only shows his lack of empathy for ordinary Filipinos, whom he calls his “bosses.”
“By vetoing the bill for increase of pension of SSS members, PNoy has clearly shown that his program of ‘inclusive growth’ is mere rhetoric,” Pabillo said. “Do we vote those who will continue this anti-poor policy?”
According to prelate, this is not the first time that the President has rejected a measure that aims to uplift the condition of the poor.
“We must remember that PNoy also vetoed the bill on Magna Carta for the Poor,” he said.
The prelate said millions of poor Filipinos needed the measure because it would provide them shelter, livelihood and health services.
Aquino, however, rejected the bill in 2013, saying that the government does not have the money to implement it, in the same way he vetoed the SSS pension bill and offered to increase benefits by P500 instead of P2,000.
“P500 is just a fool’s consolation. They are giving SSS officials millions in bonuses, but they are saying they have no money to give to senior citizens,” Crisostomo said.
He said the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research has data to show that SSS’ huge revenues and reserve funds is more than enough to finance the pension increase.
“The hacienda president not only lacks a heart, but is also a big liar,” Crisostomo said, adding that EILER data shows that the yearly members’ contributions and income from investments amount to P160 billion.
That income is more than the P56 billion projected annual payout for SSS pensioners and does not include SSS investment reserve funds which are pegged at P428 billion as of April 2015, Crisostomo said.
He scored Malacañang for claiming that the P2,000 SSS pension hike will lead to a P16 bilion to P26 billion annual deficit and Aquino was only trying to set the 2.15 million pensioners against the rest of active SSS members.
In fact, Crisostomo said the pension hike poses no real danger to the agency’s fund life spanning up to 2029, he added. It’s longer than those of other countries like the United Kingdom which is only up to 2027 and Canada which is even shorter up to 2022.
But a Palace official tried to dispute the charge that the Aquino administration lacks compassion for the poor and insisted the government is actually carrying out a number of measures that uplift the lives of the pensioners.
In a radio interview on Saturday, Undersecretary Manolo Quezon III of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office said the administration has many programs for senior citizens for the past five and a half years.
For instance, the government imposed mandatory PhilHealth coverage for all senior citizens in June last year with more than 4.8 million senior citizens being enlisted under the healthcare program.
This is done by amending the 2010 Expanded Senior Citizens Act signed by President Aquino in 2014.
Another form of assistance is for indigent senior citizens who received “augmented social pension,” Quezon told dzRB Radyo ng Bayan.
From 2011 to May 2015, some 937,556 senior citizens are under the social pension program, he said.
Also, the government adjusted the age limit for senior citizens to qualify for indigent ‘senior citizens’ pension. Quezon said that from 2011 to 2014, the Department of Social Welfare and Development prioritized senior citizens aged 77 years and above.
And in 2015, seniors citizens with ages from 65 years old and above qualified under the program. In that year alone, Quezon said 760,736 indigent senior citizens were served by the government.
Also, SSS pension increased by five percent on May 31, 2014.
The SSS also increased the funeral benefits from a fixed amount of P20,000 to a maximum amount of P40,000 depending on the number of contributions and average monthly salary credit as of August 2014.
SSS also put up a voluntary provident fund, called the Personal Equity and Savings Option fund for SSS members to provide more avenues for retirement security.
And, together with the national government, the SSS opened a P7-billion educational assistance loan program that started in 2012. And, as of June 2015, over P3.1 billion worth of loans have been disbursed for 67,299 qualified student beneficiaries, Quezon explained.