The Social Security System (SSS) on Friday recognized top public and private sector partners for their strong commitment in ensuring a reliable social security protection for Filipino workers in the country during the 2018 Balikat ng Bayan Awards, held in celebration of the pension fund’s 61st anniversary.
SSS President and Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel F. Dooc expressed his gratitude to the winners of this year’s Balikat ng Bayan Awards in a ceremony held at the Ramon Magsaysay Hall, SSS Corporate Building in Quezon City.
“This awarding ceremony is our little way of expressing our gratitude to our partner agents. Through the years, they have been working with us hand in hand in ensuring that there is quality and sustainable social security protection for all,” Dooc said.
SSS honored 17 awardees under five categories while one garnered a special citation award.
PanAsiatic Call Centers, Inc., a Bacolod-based business process outsourcing firm bagged the national Top Employer award for the large account category while Laguna-based automotive company Nitto Denko Philippines, Corp. won in the medium account category.
The small account category Top Employer award, meanwhile, went to Doña Pilar Learning Center Foundation, Inc, a community-based learning institution from Davao City.
This year’s Top Employer Hall of Fame awardee was the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FFCCCI), the largest non-stock, non-profit corporation of Chinese-Filipino businessmen.
Dooc said the chosen top employers have demonstrated faithful compliance with the Social Security (SS) Law by, among others, reporting their employees within 30 days from start of employment, paying their employees’ contributions and loan payments promptly and accurately, submitting their employer reports on time, and actively participating in SSS programs.
SSS also conferred Balikat ng Bayan Awards to its top partners in collection of payments and pay-out of benefits. The Best Collection Partners were chosen based on their faithful compliance with the SS Law as employers, based on accreditation guidelines as collection partners, and efficiency in terms of collecting payments for members’ contributions and salary loan amortizations.
Security Bank Corporation, Century Savings Bank, Rang-ay Bank received the Best Collection Partner recognition for commercial banks, thrift banks, and rural banks, respectively. Sky Freight Forwarders, Inc., on the other, won the Best OFW Collection Partner.
Meanwhile, SSS’s Best Paying Partners were Philippine National Bank, First Consolidated Bank, Inc., and Country Builders Bank, Inc., for commercial, thrift, and rural banks, respectively.
SSS also awarded the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD), Inc., as Best Servicing and Collecting Partner in recognition of the importance of the informal sector in the fulfillment of the SSS mission of achieving universal coverage.
The Best Servicing and Collecting Partner award was also conferred to the Provincial Government of Pangasinan as partner government agency and to the Community Savings and Credit Association Farmers of Surigao del Sur as AlkanSSSya program partner.
SSS also paid recognition to its media partners who have helped the pension fund in information dissemination among its members and stakeholders.
SSS Balikat ng Bayan Best Media Partner for 2018 was ABS-CBN Cagayan de Oro City’s Pamahaw Espesyal for TV category, Ahensiya de Konsensya by DZAS for radio category and Watchmen Daily Journal for the print category.
A special citation was also given to Bulgar of Sison’s Publishing House due to its invaluable support to SSS through a free column on their newspaper, which was used to promote SSS programs, discuss hot issues, answer member queries, and advance favorable insights on SSS’ plans and policies.
SSS Balikat ng Bayan Awards started in 1995 as one of the highlights of the founding anniversary of the pension fund. Dr. Antonino Raymundo, a respected Filipino sculptor, designed the trophy given to the awardees.