At 20: WAC Holds Forum
Rosario,
Cavite – The Workers Assistance Center (WAC) held a forum on November 30, their
20th founding anniversary in its office at Sapa 1 of the said town.
Rep. Neri
Colmenares of the Party list Bayan Muna was the guest speaker and tackled the
recently enacted bill to increase the retirees’ monthly pension from the Social
Security System (SSS) and still pending bill of lowering income taxes in the
country.
The
discussion started at 10 in the morning who were attended by workers, church
people, and village officials.
Rep.
Colmenares told the audience that the bill of hiking SSS pensions was filed as
early as 2011 when pensioners approached him to look into their meager monthly
subsidy amounting to 1,200PhP a month.
The amount
received usually by senior citizens could not even cover their maintenance
medicines and other basic needs. Thus, after rigorous study and research, Rep.
Colmenares filed the bill to increase the monthly pension by 7,000PhP to help
pensioners get by.
He also
related that the bill went through against the heavy lobbying pressure from the
SSS itself but senior citizens helped the bill to gain support.
According
to Rep. Colmenares, senior citizens trooped congress twice a week and urged
their respective district representative to support the said bill. Thus, after
years of persistence, the bill was passed to congress and a similar bill was
passed before the Senate.
But, the
bill was passed not after a concession to reduce the amount was made. From the
original proposal of 7,000Php a month, it was reduced to 2,000PhP.
Some
lawmakers echoed SSS opposition to the bill saying that raising pension would
shorten the actuarial life of the fund by 14 years or up to 2029 and raising
members’ contribution would be necessary.
But the
according to the progressive lawmaker, SSS and other fellow lawmakers looked
like scaring the public that the fund would go bankrupt if such a measure is to
enforce.
Countering
the opposition, proponents of the bill offered solutions for the institution.
First, increase its collection efficiency by at least 10%. In a congressional
hearing, it was found out that the collection rate is inefficient pegged at
35-38%.
Second, SSS
must persevere in filing cases against delinquent employers totaling to more
than 160,000. It was found that the Fund only has an average of 1200 filed
cases per year against such employers.
Lastly, SSS
should cut expenses especially the exorbitant bonuses that it gives to its
board members.
The bill
was eventually passed this November 2015 after public outcry. President Benigno
Simeon Aquino III though, earlier expressed his doubts on the bill, has yet to
sign into law. Thus, it is expected that the president would wait the 30-day period
to lapse to make law final while chance of issuing a veto on the law is rather
slim since its election season.
However, if
vetoed, the lawmaker said that it would require Congress to cast a vote of 2/3
to nullify the veto.
Rep.
Colmenares also called out to support the law until the president signs it.
The
lawmaker also discussed the importance of lowering income taxes in the
Philippines since the ceiling of 500,000Php for income taxes was formulated
around the 1980’s. Thus, the said amount is valued today at around P2.4-M.
Though, the
bill is impossible to pass under the present administration because President
Aquino made prior statements that people don’t need such a law right now and
that media outfits were sensationalizing the issue.
After the open
forum, the workers openly threw their support to the lawmaker in his senatorial
bid in the upcoming May 2016 Presidential and Local Elections by forming the
Workers for Neri Colmenares for Senator Movement.
In : News
Tags: wac colmenares forum sss cavite
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