SSS travails – 3

The petition of the members of the Social Security System for speedier processing of their claims had been left unheard by the top management of the system in Manila. Despite the request of the SSS employees since last year for the retention of the processing here in Bacolod had also been ignored.

Emilio De Quiros, president and chief operating officer of the SSS was also indifferent to the reported request of Bacolod City Councilor Carl Lopez for the SSS to consider the rising crescendo of protests at the slow processing of claims.

Because the processing is being done in Iloilo where there are fewer members, it is a natural consequence that claims are delayed.

Bacolod has been reduced into a receiving office to claims. When the employees receive a claim, they simply send it to Iloilo for processing.

There was much appreciation in the past when the SSS decentralized its operation from Manila to Bacolod and later from Bacolod to the different offices –  Bago, Kabankalan, Bais, Dumaguete, Victorias, Sagay and San Carlos where it is most convenient.

While the new centralization to Iloilo and Manila is hailed by De Quiros as saving the SSS of funds and attain efficiency, the fact is that the burden has been shifted from the SSS to the members, aside from the psychological trouble of just thinking his or her papers had gone farther than home.

While the SSS Bacolod can receive and pass on the papers and even follow up, there is nothing better than talking to a person than to be told what the computers say. Personalized service may not be as efficient as that of a computer or a robot but the SSS employee deals with a human being with hopes and anxieties that the computer cannot respond compassionately.

The claim of De Quiros that centralization of processing and servicing of claims applications would be speeded up, the fact is that people experience the opposite. There are complaints heard on radio from ordinary people who are waiting for their claims.

Perhaps De Quiros cannot feel this in the same way as the cold computer cannot.

To centralize the processing De Quiros reduced the number of processing units from 26 to 10.Cutting the serving units by more than half at the time when the number of members are increasing with the pace of economic development of the country is difficult to explain.

Sure computers can speed up things, but the computer does not operate independently of a human being. Consolidation into a fewer unit in the face of increasing membership, especially with the mandatory coverage of house helpers, can also mean increasing the per capita workload.

De Quiros might have the brilliance in this new system but the number of complaints speaks against the slide rule computation. These complaints of long delays and uncertainties of the status of claims were seldom heard when the processing was decentralized.

A member can go to the SSS office, get the information about the claims and then was able to know when to expect action.

People had always thought that the SSS is a non-political agency because it depends on the members for its funding and not from the whims of the people in power. The fact, however is that the SSS is among the spoils of political victory.

A new president appoints the president of the SSS and the commissioners of the Social Security Commission. Thus policies change with a change of personalities who carry into the system their own thinking and character which can range from benevolence to arrogance.

The members had long been asking for an increase in the pensions, but always the retort is that the SSS has no money unless the premiums are raised which also riles the employers.

Lacking in political will and concern for the plight of the members, the SSS top management can close their eyes and ears to the needs of the members.

How many years have gone since the pensions and other benefits have been increased? A decade had gone by and there appears nothing in sight. Meanwhile, the salaries, perks and allowances of the SSS top officials have been going sky high to scandalous levels, scandalous because a dinner of these officials is more expensive that what a pensioner gets in a month.

It now appears that under De Quiros, even the SSS employees are being squeezed of their benefits. They were so disgusted that they expressed their discontent with a black ribbon pinned on their uniforms and declared First Friday as Black Friday.

Did that touch De Quiros heart? As far as we know it did not.*  

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