MEMBERS of a militant labor group picketed Congress Friday to urge lawmakers to override President Benigno Aquino III’s veto of a bill that would have increased Social Security System pensions by P2,000 a month.
“We call on our legislators to alleviate the hardship of 1.9-million Filipinos who have to barely survive on a measly pension of P1,200 per month in the twilight of their lives,” said Leody de Guzman, president of the Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino.
“If you are truly representatives of the people, you must, at the very least, have a heart for those who dutifully contributed to the social welfare fund in the hope of living decently upon retirement,” De Guzman said.
“The current minimum pension of P1,200 is not even half the cost of living of P5,333 per individual,” he added.
At the protest, the BMP, Sanlakas and Partido Lakas ng Masa brought a huge streamer that listed the millions in bonuses given to members of the SSS board, who they described as “execu-thieves”, “walang hiya” (shameless) and “kapalmuks” (thick-skinned, insensitive).
De Guzman appealed to the legislators to develop a spine by collectively standing up as a co-equal branch to the executive department.
The militant leader told Congress to override the presidential veto by garnering the required two-thirds vote to defend their just and reasonable proposal for a pension hike.
“Lest the people conclude that members of the august halls of Congress are more concerned with their electoral kitty than the welfare of our aging countrymen,” he said.
De Guzman is running for the May 2016 elections as first nominee of the Sanlakas party-list.
De Guzman said the SSS has sufficient funds to provide for a P2,000 increase in monthly pensions, especially if it would increase the collection efficiency from the present 35 percent to 38 percent and by reducing the administrative and operating costs of the social welfare fund.
He said it is the height of injustice that the SSS executives are receiving millions in bonuses despite their obvious inefficiency and lack of regard for the welfare of the millions of its member-contributors.
The call for an override of the presidential veto was joined by the leader of the independent minority bloc in the House, Leyte Rep. Martin Romuladez, who urged his colleagues to show malasakit or compassion for the millions of retired private workers.
Romualdez said lawmakers should ignore statements that overriding the President on the SSS bill is a long shot and an exercise in futility.
“We can weather the storm and win an uphill battle especially if our cause is about championing people’s interests as a show of malasakit for their welfare. All we need is to show a strong political will with our sincere desire to serve public interest,” Romualdez, a candidate for senator, said.
Earlier, the leftist Makabayan bloc led by Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares filed a resolution to override the President’s veto.
House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said that if the bid to override the veto moves forward, Liberal Party members will decide based on their conscience.
“As far as I’m concerned, they’ll decide on their own,” Belmonte said.
LP members dominate the House with more than 100 members; while the Nationalist People’s Coalition has the second largest number of members with 45.
Belmonte, LP vice chairman and campaign manager of administration candidates, reiterated it would be extremely difficult to gather enough votes to override the veto, which requires two third of all members or 194 of 290.
Belmonte renewed his call for the passage of the sister measure of SSS bill empowering the state-pension fund agency board to increase the monthly contributions of members – one of the reasons behind President Aquino’s decision to veto the bill seeking to raise the amount by P2,000.
“Again, I urge the Senate to simply approve our second bill enlarging the powers of the SSS board, and once it becomes law, they can increase the pensions without Congress’ intervention,” Belmonte said.
But Senator Francis Escudero slammed the SSS Friday for using the threat of bankruptcy, “which is baseless,” to prevent the congressionally approved P2,000 increase in pensions to be enacted into law.
He said the SSS stand was the basis for the President’s veto, and was merely an excuse for the inefficiencies within the agency.
“The solvency of SSS is guaranteed by the government. This means it may infuse funds to the SSS to strengthen its fund life, as well as its capacity to provide services to its members,” he said.
He also said it would not be difficult for the SSS to fund a pension increase if major institutional reforms have been put in place to make the pension fund sustainable and viable over the long term.
Escudero noted that the failure of past and present SSS officials to establish an efficient collection system for contributions from employers who failed to remit employees’ share.
He said the SSS may also consider alternative ways of generating revenue like condoning penalties on overdue loan obligations by members, instead of focusing on giving fat bonuses to its executives.
“All it takes is for the SSS to be more innovative and focused on fixing the inefficiencies that impede them from giving retirees in the private sector the much-needed increase in their monthly pension,” he said.
At the 2009 Senate proceedings for the approval of the SSS Condonation Law, it was discovered that SSS had failed to collect a total of P94 billion from employers. At the end of the condonation period, only 24,043 employers availed themselves of the program by remitting P3.545 billion.
In an SSS report dated Jan. 12, 2013, there were 174,985 delinquent employers with total liabilities of P8.515 billion as of Dec. 31, 2010. The number did not include the 131,907 intermittently paying and delinquent employers with total liabilities of P8.005 billion.
SSS failed to collect P13 billion from delinquent employers as of 2014 while its aging member loans amounted to P64.01 billion, of which P19.407 billion represents outstanding loans of more than five years.
Despite this, the SSS continues to give hefty bonuses to its top executives.
In October 2013, the SSS came under fire after eight members of its board got a performance bonus of about P1 million each for the state-run firm’s performance for 2012. SSS employees were also given bonuses worth P276 million in 2012.
Reports about the bonus bonanza came out the same month the SSS announced an increase in the monthly members’ contribution from 10.4 percent to 11 percent effective Jan. 1, 2014.
According to the SSS, the P2,000 across-the-board increase for 1.9 million pensioners every month would shorten the life of the pension fund from its previous projection of 27 years or until 2042 to 13 years or until 2029.
Escudero earlier rallied his colleagues in Congress to override the President’s veto of the SSS pension hike bill that would have benefited close to two million pensioners.
“There is no better time than now to have the SSS pension hike bill enacted into law, and I urge my colleagues in the Senate and members of the House of Representatives to do the right thing and vote to override the President’s ill-advised veto of this bill,” he added.
Under Article VI, Section 27 of the 1987 Constitution, Congress can override a presidential veto by passing the bill with a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.