THE P1,000 increase in the monthly pension of the Social Security System (SSS) members is a great help, especially for senior citizen members of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII), an official said.
DCCCII chair Antonio T. dela Cruz said in a phone interview yesterday that the chamber appreciates the government and congratulates the recipients of the pension for the approval of the proposed increase of the legislators.
"To the senior citizens, congratulations. To the government, we are very grateful for that, for looking into the welfare of the very few senior citizens in the country," he said.
With the original proposal of P2,000 pension hike, the initial increase is expected to be fully implemented on February 2017 while the other P1,000 is set to be placed in 2022 or even earlier depending on whether the first hike gets favorable results.
Moreover, a 1.5 percent increase in SSS contributions is expected starting May 2017.
Dela Cruz added that although the chamber would have wanted the entire P2,000 pension hike to be approved, they understand whatever the reason of the president for approving only the first half of the amount to be implemented for the meantime.
He said they see no problem with the increase of the pension for the retirees, and they, at DCCCII, celebrate it as much as the pensioners do.
Former DCCCII president and businesswoman Joji Ilaga-Bian, in a separate phone interview, told SunStar Davao that the move will affect both the employees and employers since there will be a hike in contributions on May 2017.
“The impact of this to both parties remains to be seen and I would like to express optimism that we all can absorb the costs of all of these since preserving the economic life of SSS is equally as important as the additional benefits given to pensioners. It will be a challenging balancing act of both the public and private sector,” Bian said.
DCCCII new president Captain Ronald Go also said that the chamber welcomes any reform for the betterment of retiree benefits.
"We are glad that the financial managers in the government have been able to arrive at a compromise where the retirees receive an increase and the pension fund remains stable," Go said.
What dela Cruz deems more alarming for the chamber in the future is the rumored increase of the SSS premium contribution, of which 70 percent is contributed by the employers and only 30 percent are from the employees.
This would most likely be a concern to the chamber. But since the increase has yet to be finalized, they refuse to look and comment into it for the meantime.