Bayan Muna Party-List Rep. Carlos Zarate has called out the Social Security System (SSS) Board for supposedly walking back on its promised second tranche of a pension hike that was approved nearly four years ago.
(Bayan Muna Party list Facebook page / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
In a statement Sunday, Zarate said the P1,000 second tranche increase for SSS members was approved in January 2017 under the leadership of then-SSS chairman Amado Valdez.
"Using its already long discredited excuse of depleting fund life in exchange for the very lives of their pensioners is the height of callousness and insensitivity, especially in this pandemic...that (has) hit even more our senior citizens or elderly people," Zarate said.
The Deputy Minority leader brushed off as mere "scare tactics" the SSS Board's reason for "reneging on its promise" to pensioners.
"By saying that 10 years will be deducted from the SSS fund life if the second tranche of the pension hike is implemented, they are using the same scare tactic used by the previous SSS administrations, which we have already debunked," he said.
He noted that the SSS fund life was thought to be less than 10 years long back in 2001, but that did not prevent the SSS from providing additional benefits as it embarked on reforms in the management of its funds.
"It would be well for the SSS Board to stop scaring the people of this phantom adverse effect once the current pension is increased,” said the Davao-based lawmaker.
Zarate wants to know the result of the agency's reforms. "In 2018, it had assured the people and Congress that it will institute the needed reforms to improve its fund life. What happened to these reforms?" he asked.
"Congress, the SSS pensioners and members were apparently hoodwinked since the SSS Board is now stonewalling, especially after the approval of its new charter that empowers it to unilaterally increase the membership premium. This is one of the primary reasons why we previously opposed the new charter of the SSS."
He said that last year, an Australia-backed study declared that the Philippines has one of the worst pension systems for retirees compared to the rest of the world.
"The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index (MMGPI) 2019 rated the country's retirement income protocol at 43.7 out of 100. This placed the Philippines at the fourth-lowest rank, or 34th out of 37 countries. The study was a collaboration of the Victorian government of Australia's Monash Center for Financial Studies and professional services firm Mercer," he said.