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Social welfare.
The section on social welfare in the chapter on social welfare reviews the current situation in the social welfare field, outlines the policy direction to be followed and provides details of programmes and projects to be implemented during the plan period.
11. THE PHILIPPINE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
(by the Social Security System of the Philippines)
The early starts of Philippine social security
In the Philippines social security is just a new name for an old aspiration. This aspiration has found positive expression in the Constitution of 1935 which provided that "the promotion of social justice to ensure the well-being and economic security of all the people shall be the concern of the State".
But even long before the adoption of the Constitution in 1935, the concept of social security had already been adopted as a measure of government protection for the Filipino working man. First was the Employer Liability Act which was enacted in 1908; then the Workmen's Compensation Act was passed in 1927. Differing only in coverage and in the application of benefits, both laws fixed the responsibility of the employers for the personal injuries and deaths of their employees while at work.
There were also two pension plans that were implemented, namely the Teachers' Pension Plan and the Sanitary Health Inspectors' Fund. These two schemes were non- contributory but rather financed from purely government funds. However, because of the unanticipated onerous burden which these schemes then placed on the general fiscal position of the Government, they had to be discontinued.
In 1937 the Government Service Insurance System was established primarily to provide benefits to government workers should they die, become disabled ΟΙ retire. This was the first contributory benefit scheme which was implemented through legislation for the protection of Filipino workers. However, instead of adopting social insurance principles the scheme applied commercial life insurance methods which emphasised individual equity rather than socialisation of benefits.
At this point it may be observed that the thinking
during this development of Philippine social security vas along private life principles and not along those of social insurance.
period of insurance
This thinking seemed to have persisted even as the first study to extend protection to the workers in the private sector was undertaken. In 1949, MI. Maurice Stack of the ILO submitted his tentative proposals to the Philippine Government for the implementation of a social security programme in this country. But while the report discussed the concepts of social insurance as the considerations relevant
the for mulation of the programme, yet it proposed to implement the programme along commerical group life insurance principles which called for the payment of benefits based on the amount of premiums paid. It was also recommended that implementation be gradually undertaken on а "pilot plan" approach.
to
The Social Security System from 1954 to the present
The Social Security Act_of_1954
It vas against this background that the first social security Act was passed in 1954, providing for the protection of workers in the private sector in the event of death, disability, sickness, old age and unemployment.
by the Stack Report in that its
The law also
This law has been greatly influenced retirement benefit scheme was based on individual equity principles.
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