The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) has raised its objection to the proposed legislation establishing the Philippine Workers' Compensation Authority (PWCA), an independent body that will take over the control and administration of the existing employees compensation program from the Social Security System (SSS) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

The proposal is embodied in House Bill No. 245, authored by Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara, which vests the PWCA with the "status and category of a government financial institution" without accountability to any higher oversight body.

"Is there an overriding need to justify the severance of the employees compensation program from an integrated social security system that has been functioning relatively well for the past 39 years (in so far as the private sector participation is concerned), and place its management in an independent government financial institution yet to be established and whose operational capability has still to be tested?" asked ECOP President Edgardo G. Lacson.

Assuming that the issues advanced for the systemic change are valid, Lacson said can they not be addressed by instituting the necessary reforms within the system itself.

At the same time, Lacson raised the issue of the cost to set up this new government financial institution including its administrative infrastructure which should cover the entire administrative regions of the country in place of the existing field offices of the SSS and the GSIS as well as the costs to operate the new system. "Would the costs of creation and operation be commensurate and justifiable by the purported need on a cost-benefit analysis? he asked.

On the alleged fragmented implementation of the employees compensation program, Lacson argued that it is undeniable that since its integration into the social security system 39 years ago, the SSS and the GSIS have developed systematic and workable standard operating procedures in the implementation of the program for their respective sectors.

According to the ECOP leadership, by no stretch of the imagination can fragmentation and duplication of functions exist in so far as the ECC is concerned inasmuch as it is not directly involved in operations but serves an indispensable role as a tripartite policy-making body relative to the implementation of the program by the SSS and the GSIS. At the same time, it serves as an appellate body over cases appealed from the decisions of the SSS and GSIS.

On the alleged inequity in benefits and contribution, Lacson said this is the result of the application of pertinent provisions of law that can only be corrected by amendatory legislation and not by systemic change.

Summing up ECOP's objection to the bill, Lacson said, "If it ain't broke, why fix it?"