The government defended why President Benigno Aquino III (PNoy) vetoed the PhP 2,000 Social Security System (SSS) pension hike. They said that increasing the benefits the 2.15 million pensioners get will end up to the SSS going bankrupt in about 11 years.
However, PULPOLitika, a Facebook community that criticizes and calls out the Philippine government, has a different take on the SSS pension hike veto. They posted on their Facebook page the meme below.
The increase in salary in the first three panels may be an over-exaggeration, but it is just to prove a point.
According to them:
The government said that the SSS fund will not be enough to sustain the PhP 2,000 increase in pension. They mentioned that SSS will go bankrupt in 11 years if they approve the bill.
On the other hand, this Facebook post says that there’s enough fund. They also suggested that there are some things that can be done like fixing the collection system in SSS because a lot of money are lost annually due to improper collection. They also said that the perks of SSS board members should be reduced. Additionally, they said that SSS should find better investments to grow the money that they collect.
So, what is really going on? Is there enough fund or not? Are there really other ways to grow the SSS fund and enable them to sustain the pension hike?