MANILA, Philippines?The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) has urged the Social Security System (SSS) to disclose its list of more than 160,000 delinquent employers to the Bureau of Internal Revenue so that they could also be investigated for possible tax fraud.

Employers not remitting the mandatory SSS contributions are several times more likely to be violating other laws as well, including the Internal Revenue Code, or not making the required payments to the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and the Pag-ibig Fund, according to TUCP secretary general and former Senator Ernesto Herrera.

"These SSS-delinquent firms defraud workers on two counts. First, they are not paying their counterpart dues as employers. Second, they are deducting from the salaries of their workers the employee?s share. However, instead of forwarding payments to the SSS, these employers are keeping the money for themselves," Herrera said in a statement e-mailed to media outfits.

"They are in effect robbing workers of their hard-earned money," said Herrera, former chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment, and human resources development.

But the worst part of it all is that workers and their dependents are effectively deprived of protection, owing to the non-payment of contributions, according to Herrera, a former commissioner of the SSS.

He also said SSS-delinquent firms pose "dishonest and unfair competition" to business rivals dutifully paying their dues.

"If you have two shops providing the same service or selling the same product, and one of them is not paying the SSS dues, then that shop if competing wrongfully through grossly unethical business conduct," Herrera pointed out.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is set to sign into law a bill condoning some P94-billion worth of penalties slapped on 164,111 delinquent employers that failed to remit contributions to the SSS.

The SSS recently filed court charges against 1,623 employers, mostly for failing to remit their employees' contributions.

The erring companies violated provisions of Republic Act 8282, the Social Security Act of 1997, for non-remittance of contributions, failure to register, and refusal to present employment records.

Under the law, contributions remitted to the SSS should be paid within the first 10 days of the following month.

If any contribution is not paid to the SSS as prescribed, the employer would have to pay besides the contribution a penalty of three percent per month from the date the contribution fell due until paid.