• CHERYL G. CRUZ
A wider and more accessible service office (SO) await Social Security System members, especially pensioners, in La Carlota City and neighboring towns in Negros Occidental.
From the second floor of Agora II building, the new SSS La Carlota SO at the multipurpose building along Ciro Locsin Street in Barangay III, Poblacion was blessed and inaugurated June 9.
Social Security commissioner Eva Arcos, who represented SSS president and chief executive officer, Robert Joseph Montes De Claro at the ceremony, urged SO personnel to live up to the name of being a service office.
Arcos committed to help in ensuring more personnel for the SO, so that members in La Carlota, and the towns of San Enrique, Moises Padilla, Isabela, Pontevedra, Hinigaran, and La Castellana would no longer travel to Bago just to access the full SSS service.
La Carlota Mayor Rex Jalando-on, who collaborated with the SSS for a more convenient and improved SO after seeing the difficulty of senior citizens and other vulnerable members at Angora building, also pushed for a full service at the new facility.
Funding for the construction of the one-storey, standalone SSS building came from the Office of 4th District Rep. Juliet Ferrer, while the lot is owned by the city government.
The city also assigned two job order workers to the SO since it currently has one full-time employee in-charge, Maricel Bargo, and another parttime, who are both under the SSS Bago Branch.
Bargo said the SO at Angora served about 112 transactions per day, and she expects more with the transfer of the office at the multipurpose building, which also housed the Land Transportation Office, and fronting the city’s evacuation center.
Dr. Lilani Benedian, vice president of SSS Visayas West 1 Division, thanked Jalando-on and the city government for their unwavering support and generosity to the agency.
“The establishment of this office provided through the partnership and commitment of our LGU leaders is a clear reflection of what can be achieved when a national agency and an LGU work together with a shared vision to bring services closer to the people,” Benedian stressed. “This new service office stands as a symbol of joint effort to make social security more accessible, efficient, and responsive to the needs of our members.”
Atty. Alberto Montalbo, acting senior VP of the Visayas Operations Group, also said he hopes the SO will serve as a hub for social security benefits, and ensure that SSS members in the city and nearby areas will no longer have to travel far to access the help they need.
Among the benefits that SSS members can apply for and avail of are sickness, maternity, disability, retirement, death, funeral, and salary loans. | CGC
