PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan — The Social Security System’s (SSS) branch here reported Tuesday that it has collected PHP98.29 million in contributions for the first quarter of the year.
Atty. Emmanuel Dooc, president and chief executive officer of the SSS, said the amount represented a 34.7-percent increase from the PHP73 million collected from Palawan during the same period last year.
In an SSS Regional Sulit Conference held here, he said the growth in the collection was due to the support of local government units (LGUs) in the province that never forgets to remind employers and individuals about their obligations concerning social security.
He said this is also because the SSS in the province, which now caters to over 81,000 members from 65,000 in the first quarter, has strengthened and built a solid relationship foundation with the LGUs.
“Palawan also improved in terms of the number of job orders and contractual employees with SSS coverage. It was also able to build up its relationship with the LGUs and other government agencies,” he said.
Dooc said to further intensify collection, a satellite office will also be opened by their agency in El Nido town, where the SSS began clamping down on erring employers on Monday, June 26, as part of its regional Run After Contribution Evaders (RACE) campaign.
Its other offices are located at the Robinsons Palawan mall, Taytay municipality in northern Palawan, Brooke’s Point in the south, and another satellite office in Coron town.
“We will also open a representative office in El Nido soon so that residents need not go far to Taytay to do their transactions with SSS,” said Dooc.
Meantime, SSS Senior Vice President Josie Magana of the Luzon Operations Group also appealed to households with “kasambahay” (house helpers) to register them for insurance and protection benefits.
She said the Kasambahay Law’s (Republic Act No. 10361) requirements were made simple for all household service workers to be registered so they could also benefit.
“We are encouraging all household employers to report to SSS their house helpers as this would prove that they are important to them,” Magana said.
Under the law, house helpers are entitled to retirement, disability, sickness, maternity, loans, death and funeral benefits, and dependents pension if eligible. (Celeste Anna Formoso/PNA)
