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SENATE
Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. aired the
apprehensions of private sector workers contributing
part of their hard-earned income to the Social Security
System (SSS), a concern shared by SSS career officials
and employees, that the pension fund held in trust and
managed by the system may be used by President Arroyo’s
appointee, incoming SSS administrator Romulo Neri, for
activities meant to prop up her presidency on programs
not included in the SSS charter.
“In
other words, despite his eminent credentials as an
academic, I am not sure that Neri deserves to be in that
position running the SSS, considering the circumstances,
which may be turned into a slush fund of the President
for purposes of her own personal agenda which does not
respect the rule of law,” he said.
Pimentel
warned that the funds, assets and investments of the SSS,
now amounting to P248 billion, cannot be used by the
administration for such dubious purpose because this is
a trust fund.
“I say
this in all honesty because it looks like the President
is always trying to play up to the crowd, saying that
she is doling out so many millions of pesos, and then
asking the rest of the government agencies to contribute
to the funds to alleviate the plight of the victims of
the recent typhoon, when, as a matter of fact, she has
lots of funds at her disposal already included in the
2008 General Appropriations Act running into several
billions of pesos,” he said.
Pimentel
was saddened by reports that SSS Administrator Corazon
de la Paz was forced to resign owing to factors that
made her continued stay untenable. He added that de la
Paz does not deserve to be treated unkindly after having
worked so hard to restore the financial viability of the
pension fund.
This
developed as Pimentel warned that Malacañang’s
unprecedented act of conferring a Cabinet rank to Neri
is obviously intended to make sure that he does not
spill the beans on Arroyo’s role in the tainted national
broadband network-ZTE deal.
Reacting
to the creation of a new Cabinet cluster on social
welfare to be headed by Neri, Pimentel said this is a
bureaucratic ploy of the Palace to enable him to
continue sporting a Cabinet rank and to be covered by
executive privilege that the President invokes to
prevent her subordinates from responding to the summons
of the Senate for investigation.
Pimentel
suggested that private workers regularly contributing to
the SSS could go to court to prevent the dissipation of
their over P200 billion trust fund if they fear it is
being misused in dubious investments by the new
management under Neri.
“Individual contributors can file an ultra vires case in
court to stop the Neri-led SSS board from dissipating
their trust funds,” Pimentel told reporters.
He added
that apart from the legal option of going to a trial
court or directly to the Supreme Court, concerned SSS
members could also appeal to the Senate for legislative
remedy.
The
Senator said the ultra vires option could be resorted to
outside the scope of the SSS “on the assumption that the
workers trust funds would be diverted to expenses other
than what is provided in the System’s charter.” |
