By Daniel Manalastas
Members of the House of Representatives ratified the bicameral conference committee report which allows the President of the Republic of the Philippines to suspend the scheduled contribution rate hikes of the Social Security System.
Once the bill is approved into law, it will give President Rodrigo Duterte the power, in consultation with the Secretary of Finance as ex-officio Chairperson of the Social Security Commission, to suspend such in times of national emergencies “when public interest so requires”.
Yesterday, the Senate ratified the bicam report, which means, the bill will be transmitted to Malacañang for the president’s approval or veto.
Earlier, Speaker Lord Allan Velasco disclosed that 37.7 million SSS members will benefit when the bill is passed into law. This is timely to help Filipinos who have been badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Since Filipinos have barely recovered from losses and difficulties brought by COVID-19 and given the urgency of the matter, we believe that empowering the President to suspend the scheduled increases in PhilHealth and SSS contribution rates is the most prudent action we can take to give our people much-needed relief from the negative effects of the pandemic,” Velasco expounded.
“While we understand that there will be a shortfall on the expected collections of PhilHealth and SSS, it is not so dire as to not give our countrymen some breathing space from their financial burdens. No one foresaw the coming of a pandemic. It is up to us as public servants to give what our countrymen need the most in these unprecedented times,” he concluded.
