SSS to help ensure OFW coverage

The state-run Social Security System (SSS) is expected to work closely with the Departments of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Labor and Employment (DOLE) in ensuring the compulsory social security coverage of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) under the proposed Senate Bill that will amend the Social Security Law with Senator Richard Gordon as principal author.

SSS president and chief executive officer Emmanuel F. Dooc said that one of the proposed measures under Senate Bill 1753, which seeks to amend the 21-year old charter of the pension fund, is the mandatory coverage of OFWs all over the world to protect them from hazards of contingencies.

“Based on latest statistics, there are more than two million OFWs around the world but only more than 583,000 are actively paying their SSS monthly contributions. With the help of Sen. Richard Gordon, our SS champion in the Senate, our goal is to make sure that all Filipinos in and out of the country are protected under the SSS,” Dooc said.

“And we are also aware that this goal of ours is not as simple as it seems. This means tremendous work for us and partner agencies like DFA and DOLE, which oversee OFWs. We will be working closely with them to deliver the SSS mandate and to make sure that we will make the hopefully soon-to-be-law implemented,” Dooc added.

Gordon ensured other lawmakers during the interpellation on the Senate floor that the mandatory coverage of OFWs will be properly implemented by the SSS as they work hand-in-hand with other government agencies.

Together with officials of the pension fund, said one of the ways to implement this is through strengthened bilateral agreements with different countries in the world.

“There are only 13 states that have agreed to have a treaty with us to cover all workers but that should not stop us. Today, we have 13, tomorrow, well 15, your honor. Next year, we may have 17 and of course, that should not stop the Department of Foreign Affairs and our DOLE. And all of us should always bring this advocacy that we should protect all workers of the world,” Gordon said.

To date, the Philippines thru the SSS as lead negotiator, has already forged into 13 bilateral social security agreements with Austria, UK and Northern Ireland, Spain, France, Canada, Quebec, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, Germany and Japan.