Villar sponsors bill granting 2,000 increase in monthly SSS pension
Almost two-million Social Security System (SSS) pensioners would be interested in the Senate floor debate on a bill granting 2,000 across-the-board increase in the monthly SSS pension.
The Senate formally opened the debate on a committee report on the bill last Wednesday following the sponsorship speech of Sen.
Cynthia A. Villar, chairwoman of the Senate Government Corporations and Public Enterprises Committee. She said the bill would benefit 1.9-million SSS pensioners who have worked and remitted premiums for 10 to 20 years.
Villar asked the support of her colleagues in the 24-member Senate to pass this bill “before we get distracted by the start of the filing of candidacy” for the 2016 elections. She also asked her colleagues to adopt without amendment the version passed by the lower house and do away with the holding of the bicameral conference committee.”
About 100 senior citizens and retired persons were in the audience when Villar delivered her sponsorship speech at the Senate session hall.
The House of Representatives had passed on third reading House Bill No. 5842 or an act mandating a 2,000 across-the-board increase in the monthly pension with corresponding adjustment on the minimum monthly pension under the SSS, amending for the purpose Section 12 of R.A. No. 1161.
Among the authors of the House bill are Rep. Neri Colmenares and Las Piñas Rep. Mark Villar.
The Senate version was authored by Villar, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph G. Recto, Senators Teofisto Guingona III, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., Jinggoy Estrada, and Antonio F. Trillanes IV.
In sponsoring Committee Report 213, Villar said the five percent across-the-board pension increase in 2014, “is definitely inadequate and not sufficient to cover the rising cost of living for the past 18 years.”
“Kasi sa tinatanggap na monthly pension ng ating mga retiradong manggagawa na minimum of between 1,200 and 2,400, mabibilang sila sa mga Pilipinong living below the poverty line. In fact, kahit na dagdagan pa ang kanilang monthly pension ng 2,000 ayon sa ating rekomendasyon, hindi pa rin nila malalampasan ang poverty threshold. As such, they will still be labeled as ‘poor,’ (Adding an across-the-board 2,000 monthly pension to a majority of SSS pensioners receiving a minimum of between 1,200 to 2,400 monthly still puts those pensioners in the below-the-poverty-line bracket), she stressed.
The latest data from the National Statistical Coordination Board states that the monthly poverty threshold for a family of five is an average income of around 8,000 per month.
The lady senator also pointed out that the monthly pension of retirees is almost comparable to the subsidy given to the poor under the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or conditional cash transfer (CCT) amounting to 1,400 a month.
“It is a sad reality that majority of retired workers in our country rely solely on their monthly pension for their upkeep. On a daily basis, it would barely cover for their sustenance. We must also consider that many of them, given their old age, may even have maintenance medicines and special requirements that add to their daily living expenses,”
she said.
Funding
Villar was also quick to shoot down the proposal of SSS to increase members’ contribution from 11 percent to 15 percent to be able to fund the pension increase up to 2042.
“SSS has billions of unremitted collections and uncollected premiums. They should at least improve their collection efforts first, before thinking of increasing members’ contribution – which seems to be the easiest thing to do for them,” she said.
Villar also posed the possibility of SSS asking for government subsidy, considering that the proposed pension increase will amount to only 49 billion, as compared to the 62.6-billion budget under the CCT program.
“I think our retired workers or pensioners deserve subsidy from the government, in the same way that the recipients of CCT grants do,’’ she added.