SSS, GSIS pensioners entitled to ‘ayuda’ too

by Jarius Bondoc (The Philippine Star), 13 May 2020

Too frequent are erroneous remarks in media that SSS and GSIS pensioners should not receive “ayuda” anymore. Those stem from the mistaken belief that pensions are aid from the government. They are not.

SSS, GSIS, even OWWA, are private provident funds owned by the members. The members are you and me. Government merely administers our funds for us.

Pensions are monthly incomes of retirees. Pensioners earned those incomes through decades of toil while contributing to SSS and GSIS.

The amounts are meager, small fractions of what retirees used to make. The money usually is not enough for monthly medical and health needs, and certainly insufficient if retirees also pay food, rent, utilities.

That brings us to emergency “ayuda” – social amelioration fund from national government, and cash or goods from local counterparts. Under the Bayanihan Act the P5,000-P8,000 SAP is for 18 million poor families for starters, then six million more middle class. All of them suffered income setback from COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns. Similarly for all are relief from city, municipal, and barangay halls. Pensioners with little else to depend on but wee releases from SSS and GSIS thus qualify.

Some pensioners are well off, having substantial savings, coming upon inheritance, or subsidized by offspring. Likely they turn down “ayuda,” or re-donate to their usual charities or needy neighbors, condo staff, and subdivision guards. That’s different. But less fortunate pensioners should not be bullied into not receiving any “ayuda” at all.

And oh, “ayuda” is not a gift from national or local officials. It is our tax money simply being returned to those most in need.

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Malacañang is questioning SSS managers for continuing to collect member loans during the pandemic. That’s a breach of debt moratorium in the Bayanihan Act. Exemplified in this space last Apr. 27 was the oppressive collection from SSS member Leo Querubin not only of loan principal but also bloated interest and penalty. The supposed 20-year past due was raked up only in Mar. 2020 by SSS-Makati (see https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2020/04/27/2010060/sss-penalizing-member-its-and-employers-faults).