Bill giving Duterte power to halt SSS rate hike OK’D

REMEDIAL legislation granting President Duterte the authority to suspend increases in contribution of members of the Social Security System (SSS) inched closer to enactment after the Senate ratified late Wednesday a bicameral conference committee report endorsing the final version of the bill.

The SSS leadership had warned earlier that halting the scheduled premium contribution rate hikes this year, as mandated by law, would substantially curtail the system’s capacity to service members. In congressional hearings, officials cited data showing the many times SSS pensions were increased versus the minimal instances that contribution rates were raised.

However, lawmakers and labor groups said implementing the premium rate hike in the pandemic, when millions of workers lost their jobs as businesses shuttered, is untenable.

As provided in the soon-to-be-law, the President may suspend for six months the scheduled SSS contribution rate hike if the country is under a state of calamity.

The remedial legislation also provides the President with an option to extend the suspension period.

But the legislation also provided that before doing so, the Chief Executive must consult the Secretary of the Department of Finance (DOF), who also sits as exofficio chairman of the SSS.

Once enacted into law, the President may suspend any increase in SSS contribution rate this year.

As provided in the Social Security Act, SSS contribution rates were adjusted to 13 percent this year from 12 percent the previous year, as provided in the law allowing upward rate adjustments every two years until 2025.

According to Senators Emmanuel Jose Joel Villanueva and Richard J. Gordon, co-sponsors of the remedial legislation, its early enactment into law will lighten the burden of both workers and their employers, projecting that SSS is here to stay given its steady source of funding.