THE Bagong Alyansa ng Makabayan (Bayan) in Southern Mindanao is set to hold a four-day protest action in Davao City to urge Congress to override President Benigno Aquino III’s veto of the proposed P2,000 across-the-board pension hike.
Bayan-Southern Mindanao secretary general Sheena Duazo said the group will be staging series of nationwide protests from January 28 to 31.
Duazo said only Congress has the power to override a presidential veto, to act in support to two million Social Security System (SSS) pensioners who deserve the increase.
She added that the hardworking public and retirees must not be deprived of their hard-earned salaries and savings.
"An increase is long overdue, as their current pension of P1,200 a month could barely shoulder the costly spending of health and basic necessities. We urge the Congress not to be swayed by the politics of Malacañang. The public needs more than the justifications from Malacañang and SSS officials," Duazo said.
She also said that Congress in the first place has already passed this proposed SSS pension hike or House Bill 5842 authored by the Bayan Muna Partylist Representative Neri Colmenares, and this has already passed deliberations that ensure the viability of providing SSS premium hike.
"Their reasons hide the failures of SSS to effectively collect remittances from companies at a dismal rate of 38 percent and had done almost nothing to prosecute employees for failing to remit collected contributions which amounts to around P8 billion to 13 billion. Some reports pegged uncollected SSS revenues at P325 billion," Duazo said.
She said the Aquino administration "must be made accountable to its bosses, the working people and employees who suffer from stagnant salaries that can barely pay high cost of commodities and services."
She added that if Aquino is sincere, the matter of pension hike can be funded by government subsidies, or through efficient collection.