President Rodrigo Duterte may possibly break another campaign promise after realizing that the P2,000 pension hike for SSS pensioners may put the agency into bankruptcy.
Duterte revealed during PTV4’s interview that many people already asked him about the current status of the SSS pension hike and he said that he would give an honest explanation of the situation within January.
He also said that he’s having a hard time to fulfill his promise because he don’t own the money of the agency.
“I promised that it would come your way before the year ends. I’m very sorry, but that’s how it is. I do not own the money,” Duterte added.”
Duterte mentioned Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno and Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia who gave him a ‘bleak assessment’ that would prove that SSS doesn’t have the funds to meet the pension hike pushed in the Congress.
The other alternative way that proposed to avoid the bankruptcy of SSS once the pension hike implemented was to shoulder some of the funds of the agency to the taxpayers, but it would be unfair because not all the taxpayers in the Philippines are SSS members.
“So just in case there will be severe shortages, it’s not a sovereign thing, debt something like that. But it’s an assumption of, it’s a legal guarantee of a government that created another agency under its wings. And if it, if it… You know, if anything goes there, it will be passed on to the taxpayers, those who are not members. So that’s the problem. Because hindi naman kasalanan ng buong bayan. Hindi naman sila miyembro lahat. Government tayo, GSIS. So the same thing,” said Duterte.
But Duterte said that his Economic Managers are set to meet again to find another way to fulfill his campaign promise for the SSS beneficiaries.
During the campaign period, Duterte criticized former President Benigno Aquino’s decision to veto the SSS hike and the soon to be President at that time believes that there’s a way to avoid that bankruptcy.
