Gordon warns SSS on premium hike: If they falter, we will go after them

There is no need for Congress to look into the premium increase that the Social Security System (SSS) would impose starting May but should it “falter,” then “we will go after them,” Senator Richard Gordon said on Wednesday.

Gordon’s warning came just a day after SSS Chair Amado Valdez announced that its retired members would start receiving additional P1,000  in their monthly pension starting this January. Starting May, however, Valdez said the monthly premiums of SSS members would rise by 1.5 percent.

“Judgement nila yun (That’s their judgment), if they falter, then we will go after them,” the senator said in a phone interview.

READ: Duterte OKs P1,000 SSS pension hike

Gordon is chairman of the Senate committee on government corporations and public enterprises, which deliberated on a measure seeking a P2,000 across-the-board pension hike for SSS retirees.

While he backed the P1,000 pension hike this year, the senator cautioned SSS against promising another P1,000 increase unless the agency has improved its collection efficiency.

“Gusto kasi ng SSS (What the SSS wants is that), three years later, (they will give out) another P1,000. Sabi ko P1,000 muna tayo tapos titingnan natin kung kakayanin, kung gaganda yung collection nila …tingnan muna natin dahil mapapahiya naman tayong lahat pagka ginawa yan… (What I suggested was to initially give P1,000  and see if it can be sustained, if their collection is efficient… let’s look into it first because we will all lose face if we do that)” he said.

READ: Gordon reiterates call to hike SSS pension

Gordon noted that the Philippines is still one with the lowest saving rates in Asia with 17.2 percent compared with Singapore with 53.4 percent; Indonesia, 33.8 percent; Malaysia 34.2 percent; Vietnam, 30.1 percent; China, 49 percent; South Korea, 34.5 percent; and Laos with 20.9 percent.

“So yung ating (So our) 17.2 percent is very low indeed. Ako, I think our savings rate should be in the area of about 30 to 40 percent,” he said.

Gordon though recognized that only the SSS could determine how much of a raise it could give its pensioners.

“Now kung ang increase ay unjustified at nakita natin na improperly handled ang SSS (Now, if the increase is unjustified and we see that the SSS is improperly handled), which I warned them about— I admonished them that if they do not run the system well, considering the high salaries that they are getting, which I’m in favor of considering the money that they are handling— if their salaries do not justify or are not justified by proper management of prospering the fund, we will investigate,” he further said.