Bayan Muna representative and senatorial aspirant Neri Colmenares has opposed the request of board members and officials of the Social Security System to be granted performance-based bonus (PBB), saying it is “immoral and injust” to pensioners.
In a letter to Secretary Cesar Villanueva, chair of the Governance Commission for Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporation (GCG), Colmenares said he wanted to know the basis for the SSS officials’ request, particularly the “breakthrough results” and “exemplary performance” that would make them eligible for the bonus.
“While I do not oppose granting benefits to government employees in general, I would like to register my vehement opposition to the grant of PBB for SSS board and officials on the ground that it is immoral and unjust in view of the pitiful minimum pension being received by SSS pensioners,” Colmenares said.
“It goes against prudence. It smacks of so much insensitivity and a disservice to the SSS pensioners who worked and contributed to the fund all their productive life expecting some protection in their twilight years,” he added.
According to the GCG website, government-owned or -controlled corporations “are authorized to grant performance bonuses only if they achieve breakthrough results. The Governance Commission negotiates performance scorecards with each GOCC board to identify breakthrough results that will push GOCCs to go beyond their day-to-day operations and achieve outcomes that have a significant impact on their customers and stakeholders while maintaining financial viability.”
Colmenares noted that more than 80 percent of pensioners who were receiving below P4,000 could ill-afford to buy their basic needs including maintenance medicines.
“This is a proof of how the minimum pension of P1,200 and P2,400 pension is inhumanely low to provide social protection to SSS pensioners. Despite the dire straits of SSS pensioners, the SSS board never bothered to find ways to increase pension. They clearly failed to collect a substantive amount from the P325-billion contribution which was not remitted to the SSS,” Colmenares said.
“Even if SSS under the management of its board and officials in 2015 earned more than the P44.46845-billion net revenues and P418.31652-billion of investment reserve in 2014, the fact that it could not even give the pensioners a decent pension, or opposes any increase in pension for that matter, puts serious question as to how it implements its mission,” he added.
In January, President Benigno Aquino III vetoed a proposed bill seeking a P2,000 across-the-board pension increase for SSS members, saying the viability of the fund was at stake.
The lawmaker said the GCG should take a look at the reports of the Commission on Audit on the performance of SSS, noting that among observations in 2014 was the “delay in the processing of the death, disability and retirement (DDR) claims of beneficiaries, ranging from at least two months to as high as six months in contrast to the SSS Citizens Charter firm commitment of a 10-day processing time in its delivery of services with regard to DDR claims.”
“I think there are enough basis not to grant PBB to SSS board and officials, chargeable against corporate funds, that is, from SSS funds, as stipulated in Section 5 (b) of EO 80. If SSS fund life will be shortened if the P2,000 pension increase is approved, as SSS officials have repeatedly insisted, it would definitely not help to further decrease the SSS funds by providing millions to bonuses of SSS board and officials,” Colmenares said.
“I sincerely hope GCG will look at the concern on the proposed performance based bonus from the point of view of the more than 30 million members and pensioners who have so much at stake in the SSS,” he added. RC