Camille P. Balagtas
People's TONIGHT
August 9, 2002
HUGE HIKE IN SSS CONTRIBUTIONS UNJUSTIFIED
- PIMENTEL
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Senator Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr., (PDP-Laban) today said the plan of
the Social Security System to increase premium contributions will be
unjustified and unacceptable to its members unless they can see substantial
reforms being undertaken to improve the management of the pension fund.
Pimentel said the proposal of the SSS management to raise the rate of
premium contributions from the current 8.4 percent to 15 percent of monthly
salary is ill-timed and too burdensome to both workers and employers because of
the present economic difficulties.
Instead
of seeking a hike in membership contributions, Pimentel said the SSS should
first improve its efficiency for collecting premium contributions and loans
from workers and business firms and take steps to ensure sound and profitable
investments of SSS funds.
Of
the System's 23 million members, he said only about seven million are regularly
paying their monthly premium contributions.
He
noted that P24 billion in salary loans alone have been uncollected by the SSS.
"The
SSS management should satisfactorily explain its failure to collect premium
contributions from 70 percent of SSS members and to recover billions of pesos
in salary loans from members and business loans from corporate borrowers. For
undoubtedly these unpaid contributions and loans have contributed to the
financial woes of the System," Pimentel said.
He
said the SSS proposal would require the actively paying members to absorb
additional financial burden although the bulk of them, consisting of
low-salaried workers, could ill afford it.
"An increase in the premium contributions would mean less take-home
pay for salaried employees and daily-wage earners," Pimentel said.
Noting
that the proposed increase in premium contributions will be implemented through an executive order to be
issued by the President, Pimentel urged
Malacanang and the SSS to conduct nationwide consultation with various workers groups before pushing ahead with the
plan.
Through
the public consultations, he said the members will have the opportunity to
verify claim of SSS management that unless premium contributions are raised,
the reserved funds of the System will be exhausted by the year 2015.
Pimentel
said the reserve funds of the SSS have been depleted because of reckless
investments in the past.
"The
SSS management claims that the System would go bankrupt within 13 years. But an
increase in premium contributions is not a guarantee that the funds will not be
lost and squandered again through unsound investments," He said.
He said the SSS should name names and
identify its officials responsible for these losing investments that have
caused the depletion of the pension fund.
"If
these reckless investment decisions amount to a criminal behavior, the SSS
management should file criminal charges against the erring personalities,"
Pimentel said.
Pimentel
asked the Commission on Audit and Office of the Ombudsman to go over the past
investments of the SSS to determine whether certain SSS officials profited from
the losing investments. ///camille p. balagtas