If Congress overrides, SSS will hike pensions

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent

THE vice president for Region 10 of the Social Security System (SSS) yesterday said the fate of the proposed P2-thousand increase in the monthly SSS pensions is now in the hands of Congress.

“What I can assure is that if Congress overrides the President’s veto, then we have no other choice but implement it,”  said Edwin Alu, SSS vice president for northern  Mindanao.

Alu said this as militant groups staged a demonstration outside the regional office of the SSS yesterday in an effort to pressure legislators to override Aquino’s veto of the bill that would have increased the monthly pensions.

He however appealed to demonstrators to understand that the proposed increase for about two million would have affect SSS’s over 29 million members throughout the country.

Such increase, he explained, would require SSS to release P4.3 billion a month or P56 billion a year.

Alu said President Aquino considered the pros and cons, and projected that SSS would go bankrupt by 2027 if the pensions are increased by P2 thousand a month.

But activists rejected the explanation even as they called on Congress again to override the veto during the simultaneous nationwide protests.

Tita Hadman, spokesperson of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) in the region, and Wildon Barros, chairman of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) in northern  Mindanao, said their computations showed the SSS can afford to give the increase without going bankrupt contrary to claims made by Aquino.