Speaker Lord Allan Velasco on Thursday filed two bills seeking to grant President Rodrigo Duterte the power to suspend the contribution rates of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) and the Social Security System (SSS).

Velasco filed House Bills 8316 and 8317, which seek to amend Republic Act 11223 or the Universal Health Care Act and RA 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2018, respectively.

Under the bills, the President may, in consultation with the Secretaries of the Department of Health and the Department of Finance as chairpersons of PhilHealth and SSS, respectively, “suspend the implementation of the scheduled increases in premium rates in times of national emergencies when public interest so requires.”

“We are witnesses to the negative impact of this Covid-19 outbreak. Under this pretext, the sovereign government must be given the prerogative to bend the rules of the social security law in favor of the greater good,” Velasco said.

He stressed the contribution increase slated to be implemented by PhilHealth and SSS should not add additional burden on Filipinos, who have barely recovered from the difficulties brought by pandemic.