The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Luis Leoncio
There may yet be a happy compromise to end the raging controversy over the P2,000 increase for pensioners of the Social Security System (SSS) that was aborted by a presidential veto that now seriously threatens the electoral chances of the ruling party’s candidates in next May’s elections, from its presidential candidate down.
A Congress source said President Aquino may yet give in to the incessant pleas of the Liberal Party’s (LP) congressional and other candidates to “salvage the situation” by issuing an executive order for a P1,000 increase in the SSS pensions.
“We don’t know how the intended beneficiaries would look at it, but this is a lot better than the P500 increase that was earlier proposed,” one of the sources said. “The President has to issue the order ASAP to give the administration candidates enough time to recover lost ground, as it were, in the aftermath of the presidential veto.”
But the source acknowledged there was no guarantee the President, who has been known to be “unyielding when he thinks he is right,” would give in. Still, the source said, he was hoping the President “would see the light and issue the Executive Order.”
As had been expected, the battle over te SSS pension-hike bill ended up in a disappointment at the last session day of the House of Representatives last Wednesday night as members of the chamber failed to fulfill a promise to override the presidential veto on the bill.
More than a hundred SSS pensioners waited for nothing at the House session hall after the presiding officer hurriedly adjourned the session as Bayan Muna
Partylist Rep. Neri Colmenares, who was spearheading the effort for a veto override, stood up to speak. Colmenares, principal author of the SSS pension-increase bill, was about to read his resolution seeking an override of the President’s veto when the gavel was banged. “This Congress should listen to the historic override of the veto. The people need Congress to convene; there is a quorum, we counted 213 congressmen on the floor,” he said, his voice slowly trailing off as the technician turned off the microphone. In the gallery, the senior citizens let out their frustration, – yelling out at the legislators for having failed them. Last January 14, a day before it lapsed into a law, the President vetoed the bill giving the pensioners a P2,000 increase. In his veto message, Mr. Aquino said that giving the increase to the pensioners could endanger the life of the state pension fund.
An override of the veto could be done if its proponents could gather the signatures of two-thirds of the chamber’s members, or 194 signatures of the 287-member chamber. The resolution of Colmenares for an override gathered only around 50 signatures.
Colmenares had proposed that the government subsidize the needed amount for the pension increase just like what it is doing in other programs where it has provided subsidies.
Colmenares said the government should be consistent in terms of providing subsidy to the poor.
He noted that, since the government is providing subsidy to the poor through the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) and other programs, it is equally important to allocate a portion of government subsidy to bring the pension increase into reality, especially to the sector of the poor SSS pensioners.
“Di ba ganun ang prinsipyo, dagdagan mo? Dahil mahirap ang mga miyembro ng CCT, dadagdagan mo, bibigyan mo sila ng CCT… At least, sa SSS nakalista ang miyembro at may contribution… Tingin ko mali ang gobyerno na ayaw maglaan ng P4 billion sa SSS para madagdagan ang pension,” he said.
Colmenares insisted that it could have been better if the President had decided to allocate about P4 billion to subsidize the cost of the pension hike from the P3.002-trillion national budget of the government as one of the solutions that they have laid down to make the pension hike possible.
Colmenares explained that among the strategies that he enumerated during the deliberations on HB 5842 were SSS contribution collection efficiency, bringing down of expenses, getting subsidy from the government, and improving investments before resorting to an increase in premium contribution.
An LP House stalwart, however, said Mr. Aquino showed a strong political will when he vetoed the pension hike bill and that lawmakers, including himself, committed an error when they passed the bill in Congress.
Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice, who heads the LP Committee for Political and Electoral Affairs, said the President stood pat on his decision to veto the proposed law, even if it was an unpopular one, because of his beliefs on what he thinks is right for the people.
Despite overwhelming approval in the House of Representatives and the Senate—212 and 15, respectively—Mr. Aquino vetoed the bill, saying he did so
because only a small number of SSS pensioners would benefit from the proposed law and would bankrupt the agency in 11 years’ time.
The President noted that only 2.15 million SSS pensioners would benefit from the raise while 30 million members would be affected negatively.
Furthermore, the SSS is expected to go bankrupt by 2027 if the bill were approved.
“We have a President who has strong political will. He did not bow to the pressures exerted on him by various sectors, which included his partymates. He will stick to what is right even if it meant losing votes for LP candidates,” Erice said.
The congressman admitted he made a mistake when he voted for the bill and that he would cast a negative vote if and when the House plenary votes to overturn the presidential veto.
“I admit that I haven’t had the chance to carefully study the proposed bill when I voted for it. But it was because my concentration was in the Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms, where we are studying a lot of bills,” he said.
“It was only when the issue exploded that I recognized our mistake in passing the bill. We voted in the interest of improving our image and not for the interest of the people,” Erice said.
He also lambasted lawmakers who are now riding on the SSS-pension issue for political gains.
“Some lawmakers are now using the issue for their respective campaigns. They are just deceiving the people. The President did what was right when he vetoed the SSS bill even if it meant losing votes for his party. For that he should be greatly respected,” Erice said.