PH-Japan social security deal hurdles second reading in Senate

The Senate has approved on second reading a resolution, concurring in the ratification of the agreement between the Japan and Philippines on social security.

No senator objected when Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III on Tuesday moved to approve Senate Resolution No. 283 on second reading.

Sotto said the chamber will pass the measure on third and final reading on Monday next week.

The agreement, according to the resolution, would reduce or eliminate existing “territorial or nationality based access restrictions to social security benefits of the contracting parties’ benefits.”

“The agreement guarantees the application of basic social security principles such as Equality of Treatment, which entitles a covered person in one State, his family members and survivors to social security benefits under the same conditions as national of the other State; Export of Benefits, which allows a covered person to continue receiving his or her social security pension whether or she decides to reside in the Philippines or in Japan; and Totalization of Periods of Coverage, which allows the tacking of creditable periods of covered persons under the social security schemes of the Philippines and Japan to determine eligibility to benefits,” the resolution said.

The agreement was signed on November 19, 2015 and ratified by President Rordrigo Duterte last January 12.

The concurrence to the ratification of the agreement had been endorsed during the hearing of the Senate committee on foreign affairs by seven government agencies.

The seven agencies are the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Justice, Department of Labor and Employment, Social Security Commission, Government Service Insurance System, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation. IDL

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