Duterte needs more time to study SSS pension hike, says Pimentel

Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said President Duterte should be given time to study a congressional resolution that would grant an increase in the pension of members of the Social Security System (SSS), but Sen. Richard Gordon said the pension system for workers in the private sector should proceed with the increase.

“We should always be cautious and be extra careful in spending money raised or collected under the mandate of the law (like taxes and SSS premiums),” Pimentel said in a text message. “Hence, if President Duterte needs time to study the matter then let us give him the study time he needs.”

The President has yet to sign the congressional resolution that would grant a P1,000 hike in SSS pensions starting this month because his economic managers have warned that any increase without an upward adjustment in the contribution rate of members would shorten the actuarial life of the SSS fund.

Besides the P1,000 increase in monthly pension starting January, the SSS is also amendable to another P1,000 increase in January 2019.

The finance, budget and socioeconomic planning secretaries have recommended that the first tranche of the pension increase be implemented only after Congress approved the first package of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program.

Mr. Duterte apologized to the public on Dec. 29 for not approving the increase. “I’m very sorry, but that’s how it is. I do not own the money,” he said.

The SSS has an estimated 2.2 million retired members.

Senator Gordon, who chaired the committee that sought the pension raise, reminded the SSS on its promise to increase the pension. He said the SSS board had agreed to increase the pension by P1,000. “They must not renege on that agreement,” he said.

Gordon earlier sought a P2,000 increase in SSS monthly pension but settled for an P1,000 increase that the SSS said it could afford to give.

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