Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares was supposed to give a speech on Monday (January 18), on the P2,000 Social Security System pension hike, which was vetoed by President Benigno Aquino III.
However, his speech had to be rescheduled due to a lack of quorum in the plenary of the House of Representatives.
Instead, Colmenares will deliver his speech next month, giving him more time to drum up support for the hike.
“I guess the president was just not interested in giving funds to the sss… non-important projects,” Colmenares said.
Related: Aquino defends veto of SSS pension hike bill
In his interview on CNN Philippines’ Headline News, Colmenares also said that he will continue to push for an override of the veto.
“For me, P500 is out of the question. The P1000 depends on the senior citizens. If the citizens say okay na sa amin ‘yan, who are we to say no to that?”
Colmenares said proponents of the hike are also open to a lower adjustment, but the amount will depend on what senior citizens want.
“Actually maraming nagtetext sa akin, ‘count me in sa override,’” he added.
[Translation: Actually, a lot of people are sending me text messages that say, ‘count me in on the override.’]
Colmenares believes there’s no need to raise monthly contributions to cover the pension hike.
He said SSS just needs to improve its collection efficiency, which is between 38 and 45 percent.
