ATTN PBBM: Something's terribly wrong at SSS  

I retired a few years back but for one reason or another, not the least of which was the COVID-19 lockdown and travel restrictions on seniors, it was only recently that I got around to filing my application for SSS retirement benefits. I have completed and submitted all the requirements except for the enrollment of the bank I wish my pension to be deposited.

 This is where my problem lies. I cannot enroll the bank details because the SSS says their system is down. I can understand that anything and everything can break down from time to time. But for the SSS system to remain down for what seems to be forever is perplexing, especially since it happened at about the time of the Maharlika fund talks.

My wife, acting on my behalf, personally tried to file this final detail of my application directly with SSS Tacloban but to no avail. Three times she went there, spending time, money, and effort. And every time she was told the system was down, the same excuse that was told to hundreds of other applicants, mostly from faraway Samar, Southern Leyte, and Biliran.

Very recently, on the first week of March, the SSS went to our town with its so-called "Service on Wheels". I was the first person to arrive at the venue. And guess what, the SSS who assisted me still cannot access the system. He was very polite and helpful. But this was one instance when even sterling personal virtues cannot help bring to life a dead system.

Many of the services that the SSS “Service on Wheels" had hoped to accomplish could not be done because, again, the "system was down." I do not know how many expectations were failed in the two days that the SSS came to our town. But if the system was down, I can only wonder why the SSS still had the gall to come when it can do almost nothing.

After that SSS "Service on Wheels" visit, my wife went to Tacloban for the nth time to again make another try at their computers. She went home with no success. THE SYSTEM WAS DOWN! I am beginning to suspect that it is not just the computer system that is down. It is the entire Social Security System that is.

So what gives? What is happening here? Can we new retirees still hope to get our retirement benefits? Is there something we are not being told? Is the SSS trying to hide something? I do not wish to impute any malice on anyone or anything. But when a system is down, that means access is denied. Deny access for too long and everything starts to smell fishy.

I am not asking for any special treatment here because I am not alone in this predicament. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of us here in Leyte and the rest of Eastern Visayas, and maybe probably nationwide, who are in the same rut. Adding to our stress is the belief that the SSS, with all its money, could not exactly be that helpless against a system.

If President Bongbong Marcos is yet unaware of this problem, it is time it gets his personal attention. It is something that strikes close to home. Half of him is rooted in Leyte, the same with Speaker Martin Romualdez, who might also want to be involved by calling for an investigation, along with Senator Imee Marcos. SSS members/retirees are crying out for help.