Override Aquino's veto on the SSS pension hike

Senior citizens continue to reel in disbelief and express outrage at the Aquino administration's veto of House Bill 5842 that would increase the monthly SSS pension disbursements for the elderly. In spinning the same underwhelming data points as was presented by naysayers from the Social Security System administration during deliberations of the bill, Aquino has sought to dash hopes for dignity of life for the elderly and tell the nation that he knows best, when it comes to the necessary suffering of senior citizens.

We are tremendously disheartened by Aquino's choice to follow doomsday projections, rather than rally our nation toward better days. Something is terribly awry.

A presidential veto of a legislative bill is part of the checks-and-balances of the branches of government to ensure that the welfare of the nation has not been overlooked or that legislators have acted hastily; in contrast, Aquino said nary a word of disagreement on the pension increase in the last four years, while the bill worked its way through both the Congress and the Senate. We have experienced Aquino's poor leadership once again.

The veto is likely the result of Aquino's favor toward business interests, adhering to neo-liberal economics with unfettered profit margins for the wealthy while taxing the pants off of the poor and providing as few services as possible. Seniors are correct when they cite Aquino's lack of compassion for the elderly that seems to impede him from acknowledging that the current SSS disbursements are paltry and insufficient.

Sadly, even more detrimental to our nation's advancement, Aquino lacks vision to see that collections can be raised, taxes can be adjusted, or allotments from the national budget can be allocated, such that the SSS system would neither collapse nor be undermined.

We join the workers and senior citizen's to reject Aquino's veto:  now is a time to rally the nation to move on in hope by pursuing an override.

The SSS is capable of meeting the P2,000 per month increase that passed through both the Congress and the Senate with overwhelming support. First, the monthly collections of SSS should be prioritized as they currently are reported at a miserable 39 percent collection rate. Second, a realignment of priorities for taxes and collections can be considered: rather than collecting taxes and releasing them through patronage politic systems like the Conditional Cash Transfers (or similar Pork Barrel PDAF and DAP corruption machineries), increased collections of SSS, while decreasing or maintaining other legislated collections are in order. Third, a "spirit of service" in administration of the Social Security System is essential and would bring necessary policies to reduce the despicably high administration costs that translate into more than 10 percent of all collections going to salaries, incentive bonuses, and expenses other than pension and service disbursements and investments.  Fourth, SSS administrators should stop gambling away the fund as high-risk stock market losses.  Finally, a national budget allocation can be considered as a stopgap measure while making the necessary adjustments to achieve a thriving SSS infrastructure that would carry on with this essential service to the Filipino citizenry.

We must awaken our dreams and envision the road to a society where the elderly receive better care; the Social Security System should indeed provide security for those for whom it was designed and secure them from forced mendicancy. The current paltry pensions rob our seniors of their dignity and render them without options other than to become a burden on their family or struggle to continue to work long past their physical capability. This is in glaring violation of the very principles for which the SSS was created. For many, the pittance that they receive does not even cover their medication expenses.

The SSS pension increase is not simply a matter of business feasibility or economic projection; an increase in the monthly SSS pension is a decision to "do right" by our elders, who have served our nation well and faithfully remitted their SSS payments for decades.

Church leaders join the rally cry for dignity of life in the passage of HB5842 that increases Social Security pensions.  We urge Congress and the Senate to press on and pass the bill, for it is a correct action that can unite our nation for our common good and progress as a society.  We must prioritize the welfare of the elderly.  We must have vision, believing that a better life is possible, and dare to make it a reality.

Reference: Nardy Sabino

PCPR

General Secretary

What killed Ka Eddik?

We rage and revolt – even in prison – at how our beloved comrade in the fight for the people's basic interests and comprehensive social changes, Eduardo "Ka Eddik" Serrano, was killed.

Ka Eddik, who for decades had been a staunch fighter in the interest of indigenous peoples, lowly peasants, and other poor, exploited, and oppressed people in the country, and became a peace consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP).  After consultations in 2004 with NDFP peace panel members, he was immediately and illegally arrested right after their separation.

To justify such arrest and long-detention since then, he was charged with several trumped-up cases against a fictitious "Rogelio Villanueva." It took more than 11 years of utterly slow crawl of justice, before a Regional Trial Court ruled that he was not "Rogelio Villanueva" and cases against him were dismissed one-by-one, with only two more cases against "Rogelio Villanueva" remaining.

He aged in those more than 11 prison years, his heart weakened more and more, until he had to fight for his life under poor and oppressive prison conditions.

Even more than these conditions, it was the utter rottenness, indifference, and cruelty of the prevailing reactionary ruling system, and its systemic injustice that ultimately killed him.

We, Ka Eddik's fellow NDFP peace consultants and other political prisoners detained in Camp Bagong Diwa and in many more jails throughout the country, vehemently protest what the prevailing reactionary ruling system had done to him and continue to do to us.

We register and make loud our protest, together with that of our fellow political prisoners in this camp and other detained fellow NDFP peace consultants and political prisoners in many other prisons in the country, by going through fasting and hunger strike from the first day of Ka Eddik's wake in January 12 up to his interment in January 17.

Ka Eddik's fellow NDFP peace consultants detained in Camp Bagong Diwa;

Adelberto Silva Alan Jazmines Ernesto Lorenzo Loida Magpatoc Ruben Saluta Tirso Alcantara