President Benigno Aquino III’s veto of House Bill 5842, which mandates an across-the-board increase of P2,000 for Social Security System (SSS) pensioners, can be seen both ways. But it all redounds to the national government’s seeming incapacity to provide for its elders.
In rejecting the increase, the President said he fears that the SSS will go bankrupt in less than 30 years since the increase will have to be sourced not only from employees still contributing to the private sector’s national retirement fund but also from employers who will share the burden of keeping the SSS afloat to maintain the increase.
Rather than sacrifice the welfare of more than 30 million active contributors for the sake of more than two million pensioners, Mr. Aquino opted to reject the bill in favor of alternative measures like providing universal care for the seniors regardless of their status under PhilHealth.
While militant groups are quick to condemn the President’s rejection, his allies in Congress are quick to point out that another measure that they passed, House Bill 6112, required increased contributions from active members in order to sustain the SSS while granting the increased pension to retirees.
The Senate has yet to produce and act on a legislation that’s similar to HB 6112 to support the proposed SSS increase.
Regardless of whether it’s popular or not, President Aquino isn’t too keen about further courting disfavor from the public even if it means increasing the pension to the seniors.
Already the national government has its dole-out program for indigent citizens. Subsidizing the pension increase for retirees will deplete the country’s funds that can be channeled to other essential infrastructure and services.
Alternative assistance like PhilHealth coverage, while useful, solves only part of the problem. It would have been nice for the seniors to receive a little extra from the national government for all their years of service but apparently the Aquino administration and its predecessors have yet to find a solution to this.
It would be quite tempting to propose that government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) be required to reduce their inordinately large bonuses and incentives and re-channel these instead to the seniors, the indigents and other disadvantaged sectors of society.
But President Aquino, who began his first term criticizing GOCCs for their excessive incentives and bonuses, seemed to have overlooked this and appeared content to maintain the status quo as far as the pension for seniors go.
With Congress seemingly too busy to override the President’s veto, supporters of House Bill 5842 may have to float it anew after the elections when a new administration might hopefully review and improve on it.