BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
QUEZON CITY – Members of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU or May 1st Movement) trooped earlier today to the office of the Social Security System (SSS) here to protest SSS chief Romulo Neri’s declaration last week that the agency will not grant loans to workers who were laid off because of the global financial crisis.
“SSS can no longer grant its members separation loans because that will already be against the law,” Neri had said. “We have already exceeded the 10-percent ceiling that is allowed by law.”
“What are those funds for if workers cannot avail of them at a time of need?” said KMU secretary-general Roger Soluta. “Those funds should be available to them and should not be denied them.”
“This is the time when SSS should serve its supposed purpose of assisting workers at a time of need, especially with the worsening global financial crisis which directly affects workers, stripping them of their jobs,” Soluta also said.
Neri further said that SSS was having problems collecting from its more than 5 million members, whose arrears, he said, now amount to more than P25 million.
But Soluta said many companies fail to remit workers’ SSS payments even as these are deducted from their wages. “SSS should focus on how to collect from big businessmen who don’t remit SSS payments instead of blaming workers for the supposed dwindling of SSS funds,” Soluta said.
Neri had earlier pledged P12.5 billion in SSS funds to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s stimulus package.
Soluta aired fears that the funds would just end up being lost to corruption. (Bulatlat.com)
