I WAS a little shocked when I saw the calendar, and it is already February. Goodbye to the first month of the year and welcome to the Love Month. The middle of the month will already be the onset of war among Filipino politicians. Everyone will now start to court each one for that one vote that might spell the great difference in the lives of our dear politicians. February will surely be a busy month for our dreamers in the political world.
Anyway, the override of the President’s veto by the Congress led by Bayan Muna partylist Representative Colmenares for the additional pension of Social Security System (SSS) pensioners seems to be gloomy as the Congress is about to excuse itself in making good legislations for this administration.
Instead of talking about the increase, the Aquino congress is very busy letting the Bangsamoro Basic law (BBL) pass into law. Anyway, the additional pension law was vetoed by the President for fear of bankruptcy in the SSS. I heard that the rumor is really true that if the law would say that P2,000 will be given to the pensioners, SSS will go haywire and the effect will be to our generation. This came from an SSS executive who is not an SSS member but a Government Service Insurance System member. It seems that these people in the SSS are not really for our social security but for social scrutiny.
On the argument of bankruptcy, it will only be real if there are no new enrolled members of SSS. There are millions of members who continue to contribute. An official hinted that many private companies are not paying their employees’ premiums. Then, they are to be penalized and not the pensioners. It is the collection system of SSS that is not efficient then. If only SSS would really apply the law, then I could say that there will be no delinquent employers. The people in SSS should stop staying in their air conditioned offices and start running after delinquent employers. Please stop putting the blame on our pensioners. Blaming the employers also does not solve the problem here. It is the veto of Aquino that has stirred the hornet’s nest.
Another office that we have to be vigilant of is Pag-Ibig Fund. This agency is expanding and gives better facilities for its staff. Observe the Bacolod office. Anyway, last week, my attention was called by a Pag-Ibig collection agency about my three-month arrears. First, I received a letter with the heading of final notice from a lawyer with a digital signature, then phone calls asking me to pay immediately. But wait, why a collection agency? This is an additional expense, isn’t it? What are the government employees doing who are paid to man the collection department of Pag-Ibig?
Another issue is that this agency is very effective in running after the paying members, but are very lenient to those who have unpaid accounts for years. Take the case of a house that had been foreclosed for a year but until today there is no action done. In fact, the owner had it rented and earns from the Pag-Ibig property.
Good collection system. What is the top brass of Pag-Ibig doing about this? Why are you running after us who have arrears of only three to six months? Why can’t you evict homeowners or those renting out your supposed acquired properties?
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Belated birthday greetings to Fr. Louie Gabinete, OAR (Jan. 28) and Fr. Pedro Escanillas, OAR (Jan. 31). My sympathies also to the family of the late Ley Son “Akong” Sia of La Carlota City.
St. Ezekiel Moreno; St. Pedro Calungsod; St. Lorenzo Ruiz; Pope St. John Paul II; Fr. Cornelio Moral, OAR; Mons. John Liu and John Su; Manoy Bill; and Sir Faraon Lopez, pray for us.