199
}
5.
Speech of Mr. Roman Cruz, Jr., General Manager, Government Service Insurance System
Mr. Cruz pointed out that the seminar met at a time when sccial security planners all over the world should address themselves to the need for responsiveness. He speaks of responsiveness to a two-fold requirement, the first being developmental and the second being egalitarian developmental or egalitarian income distribution. It was a time when capital had to be mobilised; that would be the developmental role of social security systems all over the world, and it was a time of unprecedented world-wide inflation, when the egalitarian or income- redistributive aspects of social security systems should be deeply, searchingly, frankly and even courageously examined, because social security systems would not be doing their jobs, would not be fulfilling their responsibilities to the working man, if,
in the most defenceless years of their lives, they were left completely exposed and vulnerable to the inexorable forces of inflation. While a nan was still in employ he had various methods of defending his real income, of defending his purchasing power from the erosive effects of inflation, but once he retired, or cnce he was disabled, or once he was in one form or another removed from active employ he was thrown to the mercy of forces beyond his control and forces against which, under existing institutions and programmes,
he had very little defence. The General Manager believed that this was a very critical topic that social security planners all over the world should examine. In the Philippines the Government Service Insurance System and the Social Security System share in the social security programmes of Filipino workers, the SSS being concerned with the programme for private employees, and the GSIS concerned with the programme for government employees. Although the two programmes were not completely identical, the GS IS offered a programme or package of programmes that protects the government employees against the risks of dying too early through life insurance, the risks of dying too late through a pension programme, the risks of getting sick or disabled through medical care and even the risks of suffering property damage and casualties through general insurance. Lately the GSIS received a Letter of Instructions from the President of the Philippines to examine the feasibility of converting the pension system into a variable rather than a fixed annuity system in recognition precisely of the urgency of meeting the problem of inflation particularly as it affected the most defenceless sectors of the society, namely the retirees. Inflation was the cruellest tax, the most regressive tax imposed by any system on its citizens and among the most pathetic victims were those who had to live on a fixed pension income. With this in mind, the GSIS engaged the services of some cf the world's best actuarial consultants to convert the retirement benefit scheme for government employees into some kind of a variable annuity system in order that the recipients of social security benefits would not see these benefits negated by forces completely beyond their control and against which they had no defence.
Cruz threw this problem to the seminar as a possible irritant, since this was a subject that social security planners all over the world feared to tread
His country decided that the time for some courageous examination of the problems was today.
6.
Message of Mr Simeon Medalla, representing
the employers' group, delivered_by Mr. José F Lumban
on.
MI.
+
This seminar on social security, national economy and planning was most timely and significant especially in the light of what modern governments were trying to accomplish for their constituents. That representatives of government, labour and employers all agreed to gather, beginning today, in the next 12 days, demonstrated the serious concern of this tripartite group for the economic and social well-being of the working man. This gathering might also be viewed as a commitment to social justice. The practice among developing countries to devise methods and ways cf integrating their social security programmes to their over-all economic strategies became very well pronounced. In the Philippines, the development of social security was now well emphasised by government policy makers and it Was noted with satisfaction that the employers' group responded positively to the Government's social security programmes. This was even more pronounced under the new society where government programmes are invariably directed, among others, toward a More equitable distribution of wealth. This was a major prop of all social security programmes and an important goal of social and economic development. Philippine employers responded positively to the call for a more meaningful institution of social security schemes was very well demonstrated by the fact that the country's industrialists, in their convention for the last three years since 1968, had devoted the discussions solely on the topic of social responsibility.
That
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