The Philippine economic managers have proposed to President Rodrigo Duterte to adjust by as much as 17 percent the contribution of the estimated 33 million members of Social Security System if Congress will approve the proposed P2,000 across-the-board additional benefits to the pensioners.

This was contained in the memorandum forwarded to the President on December 15 by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, and National Economic and Development Authority Director General Ernesto Pernia, the Department of Finance said on Sunday in a statement.

The "upward adjustment or restructuring of the contribution rate" aims to prevent bankruptcy of the pension fund, the officials said, citing that the proposed hike in pension of some 2.2 million retirees would unduly jack up the unfunded liabilities of the SSS from P3.5 trillion to P5.9 trillion.

If approved, this congressional proposal “may adversely affect the Republic’s credit rating,” and the “SSS would be bankrupt and left with no funds for other members in the future,” the Cabinet officials said in the memo.

Under the proposed Joint Resolution of the Senate and the House of Representatives, SSS would implement a staggered P2,000 across-the-board increase in its monthly payments to member-pensioners now numbering 2.2 million?the first tranche of P1,000 to be given starting in January 2017 and another P1,000 in January 2019.

Without a corresponding increase in members' contribution, the three secretaries said the congressional proposal would cut the actuarial life of the pension fund by 14 to 17 years from 2042 to 2025-2028 because the SSS will have to cough up an additional P32 billion annually to cover the initial P1,000 hike and P62 billion for the entire P2,000 increase in monthly payments.

It could be recalled that former President Benigno Aquino III vetoed almost similar bill calling for the P2,000 increase on pension of the retirees due to budgetary constraints. Celerina D. Monte/DMS