Financial stability at the expense of pensioners?

I received mails from two of our readers who sought to bring out to light almost similar situations each of the letter-writers is into. The letter senders are both retired employees and having the same complaint about their retirement benefits. The same situation is besetting the rest of their fellow pensioners. One of the mail-senders says he is a pensioner of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) while the other is a pensioner of the Social Security System (SSS).

What caught my attention in the first mail was the fact it was a personally handwritten letter. It was very legibly written, with long, broad strokes and it seemed to me it was written by a former public school teacher. He signed it under the name Juan dela Cruz. Enclosed in his letter was a clipping of a news item that appeared in the STAR about public statements made by President Arroyo on the supposed additional benefits granted to all GSIS and SSS members which she announced last Labor Day. He wrote:

"I admire reading your editorial column in the Philippine STAR newspaper, and I like the way you present your ideas. So I choose to write you this letter.

I am sending you a clipping of a news published last Friday (May 5) by your newspaper and I would like you to disprove some statements by PGMA (President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo). She said ‘In the face of economic challenges, we must all help each other.’

I would like to inform you that I am a beneficiary of the Employees Compensation benefit which was awarded to me due to my sickness acquired during my employment in the government service. Formerly, the pension benefit was given regularly. But now as of this writing, the benefit is being delayed for three months (now). Is this the help we get as members? Sick people need cash to buy medicines.

Mr. Winston Garcia (Executive Officer) said that the Employees’ Compensation is an obligation of the National Government. Then, the Budget Secretary should look and provide appropriations for this, and since this benefit is a law under P.D. 626 as amended, then this should have priority in the budget.

I hope I will be able to read this in your column. Thank you much and God bless."

While reading the news clipping attached to the letter, I could only imagine the extreme disappointment generated by the presidential statement about the supposed "more benefits" as promised to all GSIS and SSS members. Mrs. Arroyo reiterated this particular Labor Day promise during one of her televised roundtable discussions with both SSS administrator Corazon dela Paz and GSIS president and general manager Winston Garcia.

The President proudly noted the reforms implemented in the two government financial institutions (GFIs) which have purportedly stabilized their respective financial conditions. This was after Dela Paz and Garcia told the President that the actuarial studies of the two GFIs, showed the SSS and GSIS have enough funds to serve its members until 2031 and 2046, respectively.

But it appears now that the good financial picture of both the SSS and GSIS have been attained at the expense of the pensioners through these years, as in the case of my 69-year old mother whose SSS pension has not been increased for the past five years now under the Arroyo administration.

The actuarial studies are nothing but cold statistical calculations, especially of life expectancy in relation to insurance, annuity premiums, reserves, and dividends. These statistics are supposed to take into account, among other things, the pension needs of retired members and future retirees of the SSS and GSIS.

The actuarial studies are supposed to serve as guide to the administrators of these state pension funds on how much should be set aside for investments, benefits, pension funds, etc. and not used as a tool to window-dress the financial stability of the SSS and the GSIS.

The other letter I got on the same subject matter was an e-mail sent to me last month from a certain M. Brave. It was in reaction to a previous column I wrote about my mother’s laments on not receiving even a centavo increase from her monthly pension from the SSS.

Brave wrote: "I read your column dated April 5, 2006 and I am so glad to find your mentioning of the matter of monthly pension from the SSS which has not increased since the Arroyo administration took over in January 2001.

" Yes it is very deplorable. It is also bewildering why the SSS administrators are not being held accountable or sent to jail for the mishandling of the SSS members’ money. It is not like PAGCOR money or jueteng money or the like which are well-known to be the hallmarks of graft and corruption in this country. This money come from the sweat and blood (and perhaps tears) of Filipinos who worked hard for many years before they become entitled to this pension.

"…There are millions of people like me who are members or beneficiaries of SSS who are silently agonizing but still hopelessly waiting for something good to happen to the monthly pensions (not to mention other benefits) of SSS members. As you probably know, the monthly pensions of WW II veterans had been increased from P2,500 to P5,000 some years ago (during the time of FVR). I can only surmise that GMA has also increased the monthly pensions of the military. In the US, Canada and England, the SS pensions of members are regularly adjusted upward every single year. Perhaps, the same is true in many other countries. The plight of SSS pensioners in our country is indeed deplorable. Very deplorable!

I am so glad that finally, somebody like you brought up the matter in your column. I am not going to ask you to commit any act that may be considered seditious but I will simply ask you to continue to write about it in your column with the end in view of waking up other SSS pensioners not to stage a coup but to speak up, write or do something or anything to call the attention of relevant authorities. Thank you in advance and may your days be blessed."

I am sure for one that my mother, who will turn septuagenarian this August, is in no position to stir up her fellow SSS pensioners to stage protest actions just to dramatize their sad plight. She cannot even stand for a longer period of time because she is diabetic and easily gets tired. But she could be as persistent in nagging me about this seeming indifference by the government to the plight of the SSS pensioners like her. Now you know where I’m coming from on this issue.

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