AGREEMENT. The Social Security System represented by Vice President Visayas West 2 Division lawyer Bernardo Dofitas Jr. (left to right) and Visayas Operations Group Senior Vice President Helen Solito, Belison Multi Purpose Cooperative (MPC) Board of Director Chairman Susima Nermal, and Belison MPC chief executive officer (CEO) Salvador Estaris sign an agreement making the two cooperatives as collecting agents in a ceremony in San Jose De Buenavista on Tuesday (July 9, 2024), witnessed by SSS CEO and president Rolando Macasaet (standing left to right) and Executive Vice President Voltaire Agas. Macasaet, in a press conference, said they will also campaign for the members of the cooperatives to enroll with the SSS. (PNA photo by Annabel Consuelo J. Petinglay)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The Social Security System (SSS) tapped two cooperatives in Antique as collecting agents, formalized with the memorandum of agreement (MOA) signing on Tuesday.
“We would like the cooperative members to become SSS members (because of benefits they could get),” SSS Chief Executive Officer and President Rolando Macasaet said in a press conference at the Eagles Hotel in San Jose de Buenavista.
Signatories to the agreement included SSS Vice President Visayas West 2 Division lawyer Bernardo Dofitas Jr. and Visayas Operations Group Senior Vice President Helen Solito, Belison MultiPurpose Cooperative (MPC) Board of Director Chairman Susima Nermal, and Belison MPC chief executive officer Salvador Estaris.
Macasaet and SSS Executive Vice President Voltaire Agas witnessed the ceremony.
As SSS collecting agents, the cooperatives provide their members easy and convenient access to services, self-employed or land-based overseas Filipino workers and voluntary members.
They will collect their monthly contributions, prepare an electronic collection list, and generate the corresponding payment reference number as proof of payment.
The cooperative could claim a service fee of PHP6 for every processed and approved SSS transaction.
Meanwhile, Macasaet said that in addition to regular SSS benefits such as disability or death benefits, they have the MySSS Pension Booster intended to boost the retirement funds and savings of their members.
Estaris said they have almost 10,000 members in the province, but not all are enrolled with the SSS.
“Our cooperative members who are not SSS members yet are already eager to become members, for it would be easier for them to remit their contributions,” he said.
Senator Loren Legarda, in her message during the SSS stakeholders forum, committed to enrolling the 590 barangay captains and councilors with the SSS so they could also benefit from its services.
“This is just an initial for we will be looking also on the barangay health workers and other sectors,” she said.
Legarda said that together with Antique Rep. Antonio Agapito Legarda, she will use her personal funds to enroll them upon learning from Macasaet that they have no Government Service Insurance System coverage. (PNA)
