SOCIAL Security System (SSS) President and Chief Executive Officer Rolando Ledesma Macasaet is forging agreements with Zamboanga City’s 98 villages for the expansion of SSS coverage and online service delivery to village workers.
Macasaet is arriving in Zamboanga City on Tuesday, February 20, to meet with over 1,200 village chiefs, councilors, watchmen, and health workers as well as other SSS stakeholders in a dialogue-forum where he and other SSS officials will discuss the value of active SSS membership and the various benefits the state pension fund provides for its members.
The officials who will accompany Macasaet on his visit to this city are SSS Executive Vice President Voltaire Agas, and SSS Vice President for Public Affairs Sammy Santos and other official like Edwin Alo, Normita Doctor, Joy Villacorta, Ma. Kristina Mamaril, and Raymond Alvarez.
Macasaet said in a statement Friday, February 16, that he decided to include village officials to have SSS coverage since most village workers have served their communities for decades but will end up without any pension when they retire.
Macasaet said this situation is so since they are not categorized as local government employees and are not covered by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).
“Our barangay leaders and workers are not covered by GSIS benefits and it hurts to hear of stories that they can’t buy maintenance medicines when they retire,” said Macasaet, a native of Bolong village, this city.
“This is where SSS comes in to fulfill its mandate of providing universal and equitable social security protection to all Filipinos,” he added.
He noted the same goes for government Job Order (JO) and Contract of Service (COS) workers who are included under its KaSSSangga Collect Program.
The program will provide temporary public workers social security coverage while waiting to be absorbed in as permanent government employees.
Macasaet said village barangay officials will be registered as SSS self-employed members while all participating villages shall implement the automatic salary deduction scheme for the efficient collection and remittance of Social Security (SS) and Employees’ Compensation (EC) contributions under the SSS KaSSSangga Collect Program.
He said regular remittance of contribution will make village officials, as well as JO and COS workers, eligible for SSS benefits like sickness, maternity, disability, retirement, death and funeral, including loan privileges, such as salary and calamity loan.
On top of the SSS benefits and privileges, they can also avail of EC benefits in case of work-related sickness, injury, or death.
Macasaet will meet the local media to appraise them of his new programs to expand the SSS membership base and provide social security protection to the country’s most vulnerable sector of society.
Meanwhile, SSS has also intensified its service delivery by launching the E-Center sa Barangay as well as the SSS eWheels Programs to facilitate the online transactions of members and pensioners in far-flung areas.
“SSS is bringing services closer to Zamboangueños through E-Centers located in barangay halls and deploying SSS eWheels to last mile territories,” Macasaet said.
“I would like to thank the city government for the provision of IT resources and additional space where our kababayans can safely transact online with the assistance of barangay personnel,” he said. (SunStar Zamboanga)