CITY of BALANGA, Bataan – Social Security System (SSS) Bataan has intensified its campaign to run after delinquent employers for violation of the Social Security Act of 1997.
In an interview with SSS-Bataan Head, Joel Y. Villafuerte, he said that they have been consistently complying with the marching orders from their higher-ups to come up with an efficient collection system, thus he reminds all employers, that it is a “must” to pay/remit their SSS contributions especially those of their employees because this is social justice for the working class.
Early this year, Villafuerte said that they have conducted a collection mechanism such as issuing billing letters and demand letters to erring employers to give them a chance to comply with SSS, and if despite their relentless efforts, the employers choose to disregard their reminders, they will be automatically referred to their legal department who will file the necessary civil and criminal charges against them for violations of the SSS law.
Moreover, according to Villafuerte, there are about 4,764 employers in the province of Bataan except for Mariveles town, which has a separate SSS branch, and out of these, 3,919 or 82% are said to be in the delinquent bracket, but Villafuerte cleared that as of December 2016, they have only a minimal P7.74 million collectibles from this “delinquency” as compared to their P21M collection every month.
Villafuerte further explained that there are 3 categories in the SSS member’s payments, one is regularly paying while there are those members paying intermittently, meaning there are gaps in their payment, who at this point, can already be labeled as delinquent in payments and 3rd, those members/employers not remitting their contributions to SSS.
As of now, Villafuerte added that SSS-Bataan has a total of 62 legal cases against employers wherein 7 cases are for filing, 15 for final demand, 21 are already at the prosecutor’s office, 16 being heard in court and 3 at the Social Security Commission.
SSS-Bataan Head, reiterated that SSS will no longer tolerate blatant disregard for Social Security protection on its member-workers for they (SSS) will use the full force of the law to prosecute them.
