In a statement, Anakpawis said “Socioeconomic Planning Sec. Ernesto Pernia’s recent pronouncement that a pension increase would inevitably need a corresponding increase in the contribution of SSS members is the very same twisted and brazenly anti-people justification that the previous administration had used.”
“Pernia and his neoliberal cohorts in the cabinet are aggressively muddling the issue to scare the public and push President Duterte to renege on his promise to the pensioners and practically veto the pension increase legislation the same way that former President Benigno Aquino III unceremoniously did it last year,” Anakpawis said.
It noted that “Pernia’s argument that a pension increase is not financially feasible for the SSS and the government or that it is not the tax payers duty to shoulder the needs of the pensioners is misleadingly false and speaks of how the state has long given the lowest priority to social service.”
“Government has always been wary of providing the people with much needed support but is ever ready to ensure the profit of foreign investors through various forms of incentives including providing sovereign guarantee to private multinational corporation under the public- private partnership scheme which is costing the country billions of public funds,” Casilao said.
Anakpawis also strongly took exception to Pernia’s statement that, with regard to Duterte’s campaign promise to hike SSS pension, “the people should be advised to distinguish Duterte as presidential candidate from the Duterte who now sits as president.”
“Such soundbyte not only betrays the barefaced crookedness of economic managers such as Pernia but also exposes the continuing rotten state of aff airs in Philippine politics where election seasons are mere occasions to lie to the people in order for politicians to gain power. We have excruciatingly seen how that already happened with the bright promises to end labor contractualization, now our poor seniors are heartbroken as we see how the pension promise is being broken,” Casilao said.
