The Social Security Commission (SSC) welcomes the investigation to be conducted by Congress and third-party institutions in support of the SSC’s house-cleaning efforts, particularly on the conduct of officials handling the pension fund’s investment portfolio.
According to SSC Chairman Amado D. Valdez, a committee is already evaluating the responses submitted by Rizaldy T. Capulong, Reginald G. Candelaria, Ernesto D. Francisco Jr. and George S. Ongkeko Jr. to the complaints filed against them.
“The Commission gave the respondents ample time to respond in compliance with due process,” Valdez said.
The SSC is the policy-making body of the Social Security System (SSS), under Republic Act 8282, or the Social Security law. The SSC is composed of the secretary of labor and employment or his duly designated undersecretary, the SSS president and seven appointive members.
Earlier, the SSC began looking into the charges made against four SSS officials who were allegedly linked to the stock-trading controversy.
The SSS has assured the public that its investment-reserve fund is well protected no matter the recent reports that some officials illegally profited from the contributions and investments of SSS members.
SSS Commissioner Jose Gabriel La Viña has filed a complaint against Capulong, SSS EVP for investments, whom he accused of serious dishonesty and grave misconduct along with Candelaria, who is SSS equities-investment division vice president; Ongkeko, who is the chief actuary; and Francisco, who is the SSS equities product-development head.
Besides looking at their probable guilt, the investigation will also lead to fine-tuning the SSS investment policies.
According to Valdez, the SSC looks to Congress for guidance in making the pension fund more beneficial to its more-than 35 million members. He said the newly crafted reform agenda for the SSS is now in the hands of lawmakers.
The proposal to amend the SSS Charter is currently being deliberated at the committee level in the Senate and was certified a priority bill by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council Executive Committee.
One of the major provisions include rationalizing the powers, duties and accountabilities of the SSC. This would expand the SSC’s power to diversify the investments of SSS to generate and boost earnings, and further improve the benefits extended to its members.