COMMISSION on Audit recently made public its finding that the Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO) has been paying deceased pensioners. A similar problem also confronted other pension-paying entities such as the Government Service Insurance System and Social Security System. However, as far as the SSS is concerned, this kind of problem is a thing of the past. To safeguard against dubious claims, SSS has instituted the Annual Confirmation of Pensioners Program (Acop) to ensure the continuous payment of pension and prevent payment of false claims.
All retired pensioners living abroad, total disability and survivor pensioners, including the dependent (minor and incapacitated) children and their guardians are required to comply with the Acop, otherwise it may result to automatic suspension of pension. Suspension or cancellation of benefit will be based on certain grounds, such as the death of the pensioner, failure to establish identity, fraudulent claim, pensioner cannot be located at his given address, remarriage or cohabitation of surviving pensioner and recovery from total disability. SSS maintains regular contact with all its pensioners wherever they are to update their mailing address and contact numbers. It conducts investigations and field visits to establish the fact of pensioner’s existence or medical/disability condition through medical fieldwork service to determine if the pensioner is still entitled to pension. Its partner banks report payees who have died. SSS has entered into a memorandum of agreement with the Philippine Statistics Authority to match its records of death to avoid erroneous payment.
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Road accidents all over the country have reached alarming proportions. Statistics show that vehicular accidents have become a major cause of death in our country. Recently, it was reported that nine passengers died and 31 others injured when an overloaded passenger jeep plunged into a deep ravine in Isabela. In another report, a “bride-to-be” and 12 others were killed when the truck they were riding on after a pamanhikan figured in an accident in San Fernando, Camarines Sur. Another “killer highway” is the stretch along Atimonan to Pagbilao in Quezon province where road accidents frequently happen.
We have enough laws regulating vehicle speed, passenger load, drunk driving and roadworthiness of vehicles, but what we need is strict implementation of these laws. We need to improve our road safety management. Unworthy vehicles dubbed “rolling coffins” and driven by reckless drivers called “messengers of death” are often involved in tragic road mishaps.
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The development in the Nordic Seas, which consist of the Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea and Iceland Sea, bears watching. Like the West Philippine Sea, the area is strategic because it connects the Arctic Ocean to the other oceans of the world, like the North Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Recently, these bodies of water have become a zone of interest, both from strategic and economic points of view. Potentially, based on the US Geological Survey, the Arctic “holds the largest remaining supplies of unexplored oil and gas, mostly offshore.” The global warming has resulted to rapid melting of glaciers, which opens up the region to easier navigation and exploration. All great powers, such as the US, Europe, Russia and China have turned the region into a potential area of international contention. This is not to mention the increasing concern of the five Nordic countries, namely Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, over the alleged aggressive behavior of China to buy or acquire territories and open up new sea-lanes, which would significantly cut travel time from Asia to Europe. In a summit of the eight member-countries of the Arctic Council made up of the five Nordic countries plus United States, Canada and Russia, US State Secretary Mike Pompeo has asked the delegates: “Do we want the Arctic Ocean to transform into a new South China Sea, fraught with militarization and competing territorial claims?” As usual, China has dangled its financial largesse to the smaller Nordic countries to expand its sphere of influence in the region. But this may not be an easy task unlike in Southeast Asia, for instance, where its Belt and Road Initiative and massive investments extended to target nations have softened up their distrust and suspicion about China’s motives and ambition. My question is: Will the economically and politically independent Nordic countries be lured by China’s carrot-and-stick? No self-respecting country should compromise its independence for the cheap and mighty yuan.
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A boy excitedly told his father that he uncorked a Genie from a bottle who promised to grant him one wish. “Ask the Genie to make your father win the lotto jackpot,” the father instructed his only child. The next morning, the boy runs to his father and said, “Father, our driver won the lotto.” The father finds no more reason to celebrate Father’s Day.