Social Security

THE P21 BILLION budget for the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or the 4Ps has passed the House of Representatives. This program for conditional cash transfers or CCTs now awaits full Congress approval. It is an ambitious project that has expanded rapidly.

IT IS quite obvious, from the way it seeks to double the magnitude of the previous administration’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps, that the P-Noy government has decided this will be its immediate response to poverty. Whether conditional cash transfers will also define its strategic approach to this nagging social problem is not yet…

MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives will insert special provisions in the P1.64-trillion national budget to oversee the implementation of the Aquino administration’s controversial P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program next year, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte said yesterday.

HEALTH Undersecretary Alexander Padilla said Sunday he will assume the position of chief operations officer of Philippine Health Corp. next month to sign up more members.

The next few days, analysts say, will make or break French President Nicolas Sarkozy. I hasten to add that the next few days will make or break the French economy.

MANILA, Philippines – Opposition congressmen want to meddle in the implementation of President Aquino’s P21-billion conditional cash transfer (CCT) program after failing to convince the House of Representatives to cut the funds by P6 billion.

There were many blasts from the past last week in the first budget interpellation by Congress-woman Gloria Arroyo (Pampanga, second district) since she moved from the Palace to the House of Representatives. The last time she raised questions on the national budget was in the Senate in 1997, before she won the vice presidency the…

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang is renewing its pitch for a P21-billion program to benefit the “poorest of the poor,” appealing to Congress to keep the funds intact.

When politi-cians of significant stature such as senators express their opinion on certain issues especially in the form of a privilege speech, it is expected that such opinion whether for or against must help weld a better option for any instrumentality of the government to pursue.

I am writing this column in Cebu City while in the thick of preparations for a conference dubbed as the biggest human resource event of the year: The 47th annual conference of the People Management Association of the Philippines. The conference opens at 2 p.m. today at the Cebu International Convention Center.

MANILA, Philippines—Employers have been given until mid-November to update their employees’ loan accounts to remove their delinquent status with the Social Security System, SSS chief executive Emilio de Quiros Jr. said Tuesday.

NAGA CITY—Retired judges in Bicol are clamoring for the immediate implementation of Republic Act No. 99461 which grants additional retirement, survivorship and other benefits to judiciary members.

Additional representation for teachers in the board of the state-pension fund, Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), is being pushed by Sen. Ralph Recto in the hope of helping and resolving concerning their welfare especially the alleged non-remittance of their premiums estimated at P6 billion.

Thirty-seven lawmakers, most of whom are allies of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, formally opposed on Monday the allocation of P21.9 billion to the conditional cash transfer program of the administration.

Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman yesterday said the government will start distribution of the P500 pension for the marginalized elderly this coming 2011.

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines -— If there is one government agency that is feeling the impact of overpopulation, it is the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

MANILA, Philippines – Well aware of the existence of “fake” pensioners, the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) has become stricter in granting pensions to retirees and war veterans.

MANILA, Philippines—The Social Security System (SSS) may have to implement a loan penalty condonation program because of a public outcry over its sudden decision to suspend the grant of salary loans to employees of firms it has classified as “delinquent.”

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SENATORS Ralph Recto and Franklin Drilon questioned Wednesday why the PhilHealth is keeping P110 billion as retained earnings. They asked the question after Rey Aquino, president of PhilHealth, told the Senate Committee on Finance headed by Drilon that PhilHealth has P115 billion in assets and liabilities amounting to P6 billion.

CEBU, Philippines – The Social Security System (SSS) is asking employers to get their statements of accounts and settle their respective delinquent loan payments.

MANILA, 6 October 2010 (IRIN) – A humanitarian relief agency will soon begin using mobile phones to send cash to employees of rehabilitation projects in typhoon-hit areas in northern Philippines.

MANILA, Philippines—More than 16,000 people have been purged from the list of almost a million “poorest of the poor” under the government’s conditional cash-transfer program because they are either unqualified or their names were entered twice, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon “Dinky” Soliman said Monday.

THE World Bank on Friday said it approved additional funding to expand the Philippines’ project to reduce poverty incidence in the countryside. The Washington-based lender said its board approved $59.1 million to expand the Kapitbisig Laban sa Kahirapan-Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (KALAHI-CIDSS) Project.

MANILA, Philippines—Lawmakers on Thursday asked President Benigno Aquino III to reconsider the government’s decision to increase the premium of Philippine Health Insurance Inc. (PhilHealth), saying it is anti-poor.

MANILA, Philippines – The government has allotted close to P60 billion for the pension of retired military personnel in the past four years after Malacañang deactivated the Retirement and Separation Benefits System (RSBS) in 2006.

MANILA, Philippines – It’s all systems go for the national registration day for Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), Health Secretary Enrique Ona said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – To provide better protection and benefits for workers nationwide, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) pushed yesterday for the immediate passage of the Philippine Workers’ Compensation Authority Bill (PWCAB).

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) will increase premium contributions for new members from P300 to P600 quarterly starting October 1, a circular from the PhilHealth president shows.

A LAWMAKER yesterday raised misgivings on the proposed doubling of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) budget for next year, citing a “dole-out society” in the works with a higher allocation for the conditional cash transfer (CCT) program.