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NEWLY
designated Social Security System (SSS) Administrator
Romulo Neri on Thursday promised to prove his critics
wrong, claiming he had done so in the past, and asserted
that he is fit to lead the government financial
institution and oversee the national social- welfare
program in these “challenging” times.
Speaking
to reporters after he signed a memorandum of
understanding between the Busan (Korea) Metropolitan
Department of Education and the Philippine government at
the Palace Reception Hall, Neri urged his critics in the
Senate to consider his performance record and his
credentials and not prejudge him.
“They
can check my record in government. Even in Congress, I
was appointed six times [as head of the National Budget
Planning Office in the House] by five Speakers. I’ve
worked in Neda, DBM, Ched. I have had no problems. . .I
think I have performed satisfactorily,” said Neri.
Asked
whether he is prepared to prove his critics wrong, he
said: “I’ve never doubted it. I’ve always proven them
wrong before.”
He
recalled that when he was appointed as budget secretary
in 2005, after Emilia Boncodin left with the Hyatt 10,
former education secretary Florencio Abad described the
appointment as “like putting Dracula in the blood bank.”
“But I
think I performed decentl in DBM and there were no such
Draculas-in-a-blood-bank phenomenon that occurred in the
DBM,” said Neri, who was officially informed about his
appointment this week, but had previously discussed it
with Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita.
He said
it is “unfair” to insinuate that his appointment, which
carries a Cabinet rank as cluster head of the national
social-welfare program, is a means of silencing him with
regard to the botched national broadband deal with ZTE
Co. He has qualifications suited for his fourth job in
the Arroyo administration, he added.
Neri
noted that his field of expertise is really finance and
business management (he has a Masters in Business
Administration degree from the University of California
in Los Angeles, with majors in finance and international
business) and he teaches finance at the Asian Institute
of Management, including investment banking,
pension-fund management and financial derivatives.
“I guess
the President has very, very good reasons for putting me
there and putting me as the coordinator or cluster head
for the social-welfare programs because the needs of the
times call for better social-welfare programs that are
more integrated,” he said.
Neri
said the President apparently chose him to replace
Corazon de la Paz-Bernardo, who has resigned effective
end-July, because of such new challenges which would
require “safety nets as these pressures become more and
more severe.”
He
praised his predecessor: “Cora de la Paz has done very
well. She’s a professional; she’s very much respected in
business circles and I have known her for a long time.
But I guess these are new challenging times, there are
new challenges to be met. The issue of social welfare is
becoming more and more important.”
He said
he was to submit to the President a framework on the
national social welfare program that afternoon, to be
the base of future decisions on social welfare programs.
“Within
the framework, we will have to find out how best to meet
this deficit between incomes and expenses of our
households.”
Neri
brushed aside concerns about any possible misuse of
pension funds during his watch and noted that decisions
made by the body are collective, and deliberated on by
representatives from labor and employers. “I think that
alone should ensure that the funds will be properly
used. . . .I’m sure that SSS workers are very, very
active people; they won’t let shenanigans happen.”
On the
opposition of the SSS workers’ union to his appointment,
Neri said he has “lived with all sorts of personalities
and groups, and I guess we have to understand each other
and I’m sure we will understand each other.”
Business
leaders Donald Dee and Sergio Ortiz-Luis, commissioners
representing the private sector in the SSS, support
Neri’s appointment and urged his critics to give him a
chance.
“He is
also a very intelligent person so I guess most of the
comments are political in nature and I do know that he
is not a political person so I think we should give him
a chance,” said Ortiz-Luis.
He and
Dee said in separate interviews that concerns about
possible SSS fund diversion or misuse are “unfounded”
since decisions are collegial and nature and not made by
any single individual.
“We are
subject to (investigation by) the Ombudsman so I don’t
think the commission will allow that,” added Ortiz-Luis.
Dee said SSS commissioners will never agree to any decision that
would compromise the integrity of the SSS or that are
detrimental to its members.
Dela Paz
described her successor as “experienced” and “competent
enough” to do the job but “what he needs to do now is to
gain the public trust.”
De la
Paz called on SSS employees to “continue their hard
work” under Neri’s leadership.
Neri on
Thursday denied his new appointment was given to him for
maintaining his silence on the details of the botched
$329-million national broadband deal with China’s ZTE
Corp. that includes his conversation with President
Arroyo. “It’s very unfair. In the first place I did not
ask for it.”
On his
stint at the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), he
said he was put there by the President to
“trouble-shoot” the problems at the agency and that he
had now already done his job.
Meanwhile, sources at the CHED said that Commissioner
Nona Ricafort now has an edge over Angeles University
Foundation Chancellor Manny Angeles, who was supposed to
be the replacement of Neri. (With Claudette Mocon,
Czeriza Valencia) |
