2021-01-11T074517Z_121565365_RC2J5L909QBN_RTRMADP_3_HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS-PHILIPPINES-(Read-Only)
A woman wearing a face mask as protection against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) walks past a mural dedicated to frontline workers, in Manila, Philippines. Employees Compensation Commission (ECC) pensioners in both the private and public sectors will benefit from the one-time assistance amounting to about $419. Image Credit: Reuters

Highlights

  • All qualified pensioners of the Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) will receive Php20,000 from this month (June 2021).
  • Pay-out follows Duterte's signing of Administrative Order No. 39 approving one-time financial grant for pensioners in both public and private sectors.
Also in this package

Manila: All qualified pensioners of the Employees’ Compensation Commission (ECC) will receive a Php20,000 (about $419 or Dh1,538) financial assistance starting this June, the Philippine labour department said Tuesday (June 1, 2021).

“The P20,000 financial assistance from the ECC for private sector EC pensioners will be credited to their accounts starting this month of June,” Philippine Labour Secretary Silvestre Bello III said in a statement.

The one-time financial assistance will be released in batches to about 32,000 EC pensioners by the Social Security System (SSS) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) — the commission’s administering agencies for the private and public sectors, respectively.

ECC Executive Director Stella Zipagan-Banawis, in her report to Bello, who chairs the ECC, said that qualified pensioners need not apply for the financial assistance.

Payouts will be processed in the same manner as the processing of their EC pensions.

“EC pensioners in the private sector with at least one month of permanent partial disability (PPD), permanent total disability (PTD), or survivorship pension from January 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021, will benefit from the one-time financial assistance,” Banawis added.

On April 19, 2021, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Administrative Order No. 39 approving the one-time financial grant for pensioners in both public and private sectors.

WHO ARE EC PENSIONERS?
EC pensioners are persons with permanent partial disability (PPD) or permanent total disability (PTD) due to work or their working environment. They can also be the beneficiaries of the employees who died due to work-related contingencies.

In case of the death of the eligible EC pensioner during the prescribed period of January 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021, the one-time financial assistance will be released to his or her beneficiary.

Pandemic relief

“The EC pensioners have suffered work-related disability and the COVID-19 pandemic compounded their vulnerability as they deal with undue financial hardships,” Banawis said.

“We hope that the one-time financial assistance can ease the financial burdens of our EC pensioners during this trying time. Rest assured that ECC is tirelessly working to provide more assistance to our workers.”