By Saul E. Pa-a
SAN PABLO CITY, Laguna (PNA) -– Social Security System (SSS)-San Pablo City Branch manager Wenceslao Virtucio announced on Wednesday that the agency will launch the “AlkanSSSya Ng Bayan” savings program in this city on Nonday, Nov. 4.
Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis Baldoz and undersecretary Rebecca C. Chato will lead the launch together with five Luzon-based DOLE Regional Directors.
The DOLE and SSS top officials will grace the event beginning 4 p.m. as a prelude to the “Night Market” where members of the Federation of Market Vendors of San Pablo City, Inc. and the Federation of Tricycle Operators and Drivers Associations, Inc will converge for the occasion.
The SSS “piggy-bank” styled program aims to encourage informal sector workers to practice the innovative micro-savings scheme.
Lawyer Mia Antonette M. Quijano, Chief of the Business Permit and License Division of this city and concurrent head of the City Traffic Management Office, disclosed Secretary Baldoz and party will be joined by City Mayor Loreto S. Amante.
She and acting City Public Employment and Service Office (PESO) manager Melinda P. Bondad will also join the DOLE Secretary and entourage.
Quijano also revealed that City Mayor Amante has committed to provide a space at the San Pablo City Shopping Mall where the various associations of informal sector workers can put up their piggy bank-like cabinet or box.
The box serves as savings depository box for each member’s daily contribution of at least P10 each day which, on a month’s period, could save up to P312 for the monthly premium payments under the SSS program.
SSS Branch manager Virtucio said he has designated his staff to collect from the “AlkanSSSya” at the end of the month for remittance to the depository bank of the Social Security System.
The San Pablo City “Night Market” was organized on the initiative of then City Administrator and now Mayor Amben Amante and City Councilor Edgardo Adajar.
The night market formally opened along the stretch of A. M. Regidor Street fronting the San Pablo City Shopping Mall in December 2011.
Since then, the “Night Market” was institutionalized and became more than an after-work evening leisure stroll, shopping and dining experience of mostly employees and workers.