Grant of Across-the-Board Increase of 20% in Monthly Income Benefit for Work-Connected Contingencies

May 1, 1982

LETTER OF INSTRUCTIONS NO. 1236

WHEREAS, it is the avowed policy of the Government to upgrade the benefit structure for employees and workers when the justifiable need therefore arises, pursuant to paragraph (e) of Article 177 of the Labor Code of the Philippines, as amended, subject to approval of the President; casia

WHEREAS, judicious management of the State Insurance Fund that the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System administer under the Employees Compensation Program has resulted in accumulation of sufficient reserves to enable the Employees' Compensation Commission to further upgrade the benefit structure for covered employees, without requiring additional premium contribution from employers;

WHEREAS, the Employees' Compensation Commission, pursuant to Resolution No. 1766 dated June 4, 1981, has granted, subject to approval of the President of the Philippines, a twenty percent (20%) across-the-board increase in monthly income benefit for work-connected injury, sickness, disability or death to complement the Presidential Directive issued on May 1, 1981 which readjusted the benefit structure for SSS pensioners by an across-the-board increase of twenty percent (20%) beginning June 1, 1981, to protect the purchasing power of the workers from world-wide inflationary pressures; and

WHEREAS, computation of compensation benefits under PD 626, as amended, is invariably based on computation of benefits under the Social Security Law, so much so that an adjustment in benefits under the SS law will inevitably affect the benefits under the EC law; cd

NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Republic of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution, do hereby approve and direct the grant by the Constitution, do hereby approve and direct the grant by the EMPLOYEES COMPENSATION COMMISSION, and its Administering Agency, the SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM, of a twenty percent (20%) across-the-board increase in monthly income benefit or work-connected injury, sickness, disability or death of employees in the private sector whose causes of action accrued on or before May 31, 1981, provided that the viability and stability of the State Insurance Fund shall not in any manner be impaired.

DONE in the City of Manila, this 1st day of May, in the year of Our Lord, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Two.