|
CORAZON
de la Paz-Bernardo, outgoing president and chief
executive officer of the Social Security System (SSS),
said she is leaving the pension fund with “a healthy
balance sheet.”
Without
sounding a bit self-righteous, de la Paz-Bernardo gave a
hint of why this is so: She confirmed she had politely
rejected requests to have the SSS fund several projects
when she felt this would violate the system’s charter.
While
praising the hard work and sacrifice of the SSS staff in
serving their 27 million members, she also publicly
appealed that SSS funds not be used without approval of
the agency.
“Kailangan
alagaan ang pondo, gamitin lang sa ilalim ng batas
[The funds need to be used only for lawful purposes],”
she said.
Her
description of the SSS performance as she leaves is
reminiscent of the press conference held by Jose L.
Cuisia Jr., who was tapped by then President Corazon
Aquino to head the pension fund following the
resignation of Gilberto Teodoro, the Marcos-era SSS
chief.
Cuisia’s
priority was to find out how SSS funds were doing. With
the audit completed, he called a press conference at the
pension fund’s head office in Quezon City and told
reporters: “In fairness to Mr. Teodoro, the money of SSS
members remains intact under his watch.”
Bernardo, who submitted last month her letter of
resignation to President Arroyo, would make an exit that
should also make SSS members proud as they should have
done when Teodoro was the chief caretaker of their
money. SSS, she says, is now strong because the pension
fund’s management had seen it their duty to protect its
members’ money.
There
were requests for funding for certain projects which,
she said, SSS “rejected.” To have done so would have
been in violation of its charter, she said, adding that
she had to explain to President Arroyo why her
request—made at a time when SSS was in crisis as its
funds were projected to last only until 2015—for
workers’ benefits could not be immediately granted.
The
President, she said, believed her. And when SSS’s
financials improved, the commission approved two
increases in the pensions aside from the 13th-month
pension which it distributes in November.
At a
news conference held at the SSS building on Ayala
Avenue, she called on SSS employees to “continue their
hard work under the leadership of new SSS President and
Chief Executive Officer Romulo Neri after I step down on
July 31.”
Neri’s
appointment as her successor was tainted with
controversy after Malacañang on Tuesday issued
Administrative Order (AO) 232 that lumps together the
Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the
Social Security System (SSS) with other social-welfare
agencies to be headed by Neri, who will then have
Cabinet rank. These fueled fears of SSS employees and
members that the trust fund of private-sector workers
might be treated as some “kitty” for pet projects of the
administration.
Ironically, there is indeed something in the kitty that
could be tempting to touch. As the outgoing chief put
it, “Slowly but surely, we have strengthened the SSS and
we have given it financial stability. We couldn’t have
done these without the hard work, sacrifice and
diligence of the SSS employees….After seven years, I
feel I have done my part in serving the SSS…I am truly
grateful for the opportunity to be of service to the
more than 27-million SSS members.”
Continuing her tribute to her staff, she added, “I have
a very comfortable feeling that our own people here
would continue what they’re doing and continue their
sacrifice.”
She said
SSS funds will now be able to last until 2036. In 1999,
the SSS fund’s life was only projected to last until
2015.
Bernardo
is winding up her over seven-year administration of SSS
funds, which, for the first time in seven years,
recorded a surplus of P1.2 billion in 2005.
But of
course, the surplus came amid silent protests from
employers who had to shoulder the burden of prolonging
SSS’s life span by contributing more. With the approval
of the Social Security Commission, SSS’s policymaking
body, SSS raised contributions twice, the last time at
P10.4 percent.
Bernardo
took over the twin post at SSS at a crucial time: She
had to contend with a portfolio that had been tainted
under the previous administration of Carlos Arellano,
the man who could not say no to President Joseph
Ejercito Estrada.
In an
affidavit he signed on February 12, 2001, in connection
with the impeachment of Estrada, Carlos Arellano said
the pension fund paid P744.6 million for 329.855 million
Belle shares in 1999 for an average price of P2.257
each.
“Despite
the fact that I was not comfortable with the BEL shares,
because of the repeated pressures from the President,
the order to buy BEL shares were finally implemented on
October 21, 1999,” said Arellano in his affidavit.
Detailing the acquisition, Arellano, a former executive
vice president and general manager of the trust banking
group of Far East Bank and Trust Co., said the Belle
shares entitled SSS to a seat in Belle’s board of
directors.
To this
day, SSS has yet to recover its placements in Belle,
which closed Thursday at P0.60.
SSS
members, however, may not have known that aside from the
bad investments in Belle shares, P400 million of their
money was lent to the same listed company. Luckily,
after years of nagging by Bernardo, Belle paid SSS in
kind— a property on Roxas Boulevard.
Perhaps
San Miguel Corp. (SMC) may have made the first
disclosure that Bernardo was on the way out as SSS
president and CEO. Its filing in connection with its
annual stockholders’ meeting on July 24 did not include
Bernardo among the nominees for the SMC’s 15-man board.
Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., SMC chairman and chief executive
officer, however, retained Winston Garcia as one of his
three nominees for independent directors.
Garcia
is the president, general manager and vice chairman of
the board of trustees of the Government Service
Insurance System (GSIS).
In
previous years, both Garcia and Bernardo were in SMC’s
board as nominees for independent directors of GSIS and
SSS.
Despite
her leaving SSS, Bernardo will continue her second
three-year term as president of the International Social
Security Association because the Social Security
Commission decided, in a meeting held before the press
briefing on Thursday, to appoint her as the agency’s
representative to the global body.
But she
was uncertain about retaining her directorship in some
listed companies representing SSS, which she said was
not taken up during the commission meeting. The
companies, she said, have “to decide on that.”
Bernardo
sits on the board of Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT, among
a number of listed companies. She is on her sixth term
as member of the SMC board.
In a
filing made by Philex with the Philippine Stock
Exchange, the mining company placed her age at 67, an
age which she made fun of herself. Bernardo, who retired
as chairman of Joaquin Cunanan and Co. in 2001, said she
has been asked many times what she would do after SSS.
“I will probably make a baby.” (With Czeriza Valencia) |
