By Vir B. Lumicao
Perhaps unknown to most Filipinos, TNTs
(tago nang tago or illegal immigrants) and undocumented OFWs can still become
bona fide Social Security System members eligible for pension and other
benefits when they return home.
That’s if they enroll
as self-employed members in the state-run pension fund for private-sector
workers, an SSS officer at the Consulate has told The SUN.
“The only requirement
is their (applicants’) birth certificates or passports, whichever is
available,” Rhea Balicas, SSS representative in Hong Kong, said.
Balicas, who moved to
Hong Kong in August last year from the regional office in Iloilo, said she had
noticed an increase in the number of OFWs in Hong Kong reactivating their
dormant membership in SSS since the middle of January.
She explained that
undocumented workers who apply for membership now would also be covered by all
benefits accruing to other members when they return to the Philippines.
Balicas had been
assigned to oversee the pension fund’s Macau operations in addition to her job
in the SSS Hong Kong office at the Consulate.
She estimated that
there are about 45,000 Filipinos working legally in Macau, mostly in the
enclave’s hotel and gaming industry. Several thousand more of undocumented OFWs
are also working in the same industry or in households as domestic helpers.
To serve the Filipinos
in Macau, SSS has posted a staff member at the Philippine Consulate there. But Balicas said she expects
to make regular weekend trips there to help attend to the needs of clients, and
to encourage more OFWs to sign up for membership, or inactive members to
reactivate their accounts so they could get full benefits.
Balicas cited her
father’s experience as example of the importance of being fully covered by SSS.
“My father, 25 years siyang OFW sa Middle East. Pinabayaan din ng papa ko yung
Pag-IBIG niya at yung SSS niya, talagang wala. But later on, siguro noong malapit na siyang mag-60, mga 50
something, na-realize niya na, ‘Uy! Meron palang ganito.’ ‘Yun nga, itinuloy
niya ang SSS niya,” Balias said. Now her father has retired and is receiving a
monthly pension.
