Budget Secretary Diokno pressed for the increase in the monthly premiums of SSS members to fund pension of retired members
Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Benjamin Diokno emphasized on Tuesday that a higher premium must be squeezed from more than 30 million members of the Social Security System (SSS) before an increase on the retired members’ pension be asked.
Diokno made the proposal being a part of the three-member team, with two other members including Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and Economic and Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, which gives advises to President Rodrigo Duterte on economic issues.
The DBM Secretary admitted that the team barred the proposal to increase the monthly pension of more than two million retired SSS members by P2 thousand without increasing the premium contribution of the members.
He also earlier said he finds it “unfair” to pass the burden of making President Duterte decide on the push of increasing the SSS pension when the SSS executives should have done something to find funds to bankroll the increase.
He said that the SSS has so many alternatives to increase their collection efficiency. He cited for example the many corporations who are indebted to the government financial institution, which the SSS can call on for them to pay.
The DBM secretary was quoted saying, ” It should not have reached the President’s desk in the first place. The SSS board of trustees should have exercised leadership and resolved the issue”.
Meanwhile, Secretary Diokno was a little cornered when reminded that Duterte had promised the increase in SSS pension during his campaign for the Presidency.
The Budget chief was quick to remind that he was not a politician but he certainly knows that “the candidate Duterte is different from President Duterte”.
He said that campaign promises are not only “made to be broken” in the Philippines, comparing Duterte to United States of America’s Donald Trump, who also made promises when he was a candidate but detoured his policy direction right after he was elected.
According to Diokno, politicians usually makes promised during the campaign but upon assumption to office and seeing the data, they will realize that what they promised was not doable.
In Diokno’s proposal, he said the increase in premium contribution should come after the planned reduction in income tax, as part of the pushed Tax Reform Law.
Diokno said if income tax rates were cut, the employees would have more money and they would not mind paying a small additional SSS contribution.
And when SSS could earn more funding, the hike in retiree’s pension could be bankrolled by the fund itself.