GOCC Mercenaries
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7/30/2019 GOCC Mercenaries http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/gocc-mercenaries 1/2 Inquirer Opinion / Columns http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100902-290206/Officials-name... AS I SEE IT As I See It : Officials named to GOCCs are mercenaries By Neal Cruz Columnist Philippine Daily Inquirer Posted date: September 02, 2010 IT IS now clear why the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) cannot provide enough water to the people, which is its primary responsibility. And why the retirement benefits of members of the Social Security System (SSS) are so pitifully tiny that it is a joke. In the case of the MWSS, its officials are so busy inventing names for the numerous bonuses they give themselves that they have no time left to develop more water sources to supply its thirsty subscribers. In the case of the SSS, its officials are so busy counting the profits and dividends they get from the private companies where they have invested the money of SSS members that they have no more time to look after the welfare of its members who pay the premiums that they invest, from which they get their profits and dividends. Also, they use most of SSS funds for themselves so that there is little left for the members. Who determines how much should be the salaries, allowances and bonuses of officials not only of the MWSS and the SSS but also of other government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs)? Why, the boards of directors of the corporations themselves. And it is human nature that when you give greedy people this much power, their greed will take over and they will use this power to benefit themselves. It used to be that the pay of GOCCs were kept in check by the Salary Standardization Law. But the GOCCs lobbied that they be exempted from the national pay scale so that they could approximate the pay scales of private corporations. In so doing, they said, they would be able to attract successful executives of private corporations to join the government. But with the high pay scales, the GOCCs attracted not bright private executives but mercenaries. Look at the members of the boards of directors of most GOCCs. They are mostly nobodies: defeated candidates, protégés of politicians, camp followers, friends and relatives of politicians with little or no experience in running corporations. If there are executives who came from private corporations, they are the failures. So where are the bright boys that the high pay are supposed to attract? President Aquino should lose no time in issuing an executive order putting a cap on the pay of GOCC officials as the senators have recommended. For each day that there is no limit to their pay, these officials will rob their own corporations and the people and run laughing all the way to their banks. The Senate has uncovered enough evidence to prove that GOCC officials are abusing the authority given them by their charters to fix their own pay. The framers of our original Constitution already saw the human frailty that will succumb to the temptation to enrich one’s self when given the power to do so. So they put a limit to the power of Congress to appropriate funds. They are prohibited from increasing their own salaries. But the politicians found a way to go around this prohibition. While not giving themselves salary increases, they gave themselves all sorts of allowances. Then they invented the pork barrel and the congressional insertions. That is what the directors of the MWSS and other GOCCs are imitating. Aside from allowances, they have given themselves all sorts of bonuses limited only by the available words in the dictionary. As of last count, the MWSS had 33 bonuses every year, including a so-called gender-incentive bonus, whatever that means. That means they have more than Page 1 of 2 Officials named to GOCCs are mercenaries - 9/02/10 9/7/2010 http://services.inquirer.net/print/print.php?article_id=20100902-290206
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Transcript of GOCC Mercenaries
7/30/2019 GOCC Mercenaries
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/gocc-mercenaries 1/2
Inquirer Opinion / Columns
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20100902-290206/Officials-name...
AS I SEE IT
As I See It : Officials named to GOCCs aremercenariesBy Neal CruzColumnistPhilippine Daily Inquirer
Posted date: September 02, 2010
IT IS now clear why the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) cannot provide enough water to thepeople, which is its primary responsibility. And why the retirement benefits of members of the Social Security System(SSS) are so pitifully tiny that it is a joke.
In the case of the MWSS, its officials are so busy inventing names for the numerous bonuses they give themselves thatthey have no time left to develop more water sources to supply its thirsty subscribers. In the case of the SSS, its officialsare so busy counting the profits and dividends they get from the private companies where they have invested the money ofSSS members that they have no more time to look after the welfare of its members who pay the premiums that they invest,from which they get their profits and dividends. Also, they use most of SSS funds for themselves so that there is little leftfor the members.
Who determines how much should be the salaries, allowances and bonuses of officials not only of the MWSS and the SSSbut also of other government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs)? Why, the boards of directors of thecorporations themselves. And it is human nature that when you give greedy people this much power, their greed will takeover and they will use this power to benefit themselves.
It used to be that the pay of GOCCs were kept in check by the Salary Standardization Law. But the GOCCs lobbied thatthey be exempted from the national pay scale so that they could approximate the pay scales of private corporations. In sodoing, they said, they would be able to attract successful executives of private corporations to join the government.
But with the high pay scales, the GOCCs attracted not bright private executives but mercenaries.
Look at the members of the boards of directors of most GOCCs. They are mostly nobodies: defeated candidates, protégésof politicians, camp followers, friends and relatives of politicians with little or no experience in running corporations. If thereare executives who came from private corporations, they are the failures. So where are the bright boys that the high payare supposed to attract?
President Aquino should lose no time in issuing an executive order putting a cap on the pay of GOCC officials as thesenators have recommended. For each day that there is no limit to their pay, these officials will rob their own corporationsand the people and run laughing all the way to their banks.
The Senate has uncovered enough evidence to prove that GOCC officials are abusing the authority given them by theircharters to fix their own pay.
The framers of our original Constitution already saw the human frailty that will succumb to the temptation to enrich one’sself when given the power to do so. So they put a limit to the power of Congress to appropriate funds. They are prohibitedfrom increasing their own salaries.
But the politicians found a way to go around this prohibition. While not giving themselves salary increases, they gavethemselves all sorts of allowances. Then they invented the pork barrel and the congressional insertions.
That is what the directors of the MWSS and other GOCCs are imitating. Aside from allowances, they have giventhemselves all sorts of bonuses limited only by the available words in the dictionary. As of last count, the MWSS had 33bonuses every year, including a so-called gender-incentive bonus, whatever that means. That means they have more than
Page 1 of 2Officials named to GOCCs are mercenaries - 9/02/10
9/7/2010http://services.inquirer.net/print/print.php?article_id=20100902-290206
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two bonuses every month. Not only that, each director gets P14,000 for attending each meeting that lasts from one to twohours. So they had two meetings a day, and each director collects P28,000 a day just for attending meetings, aside fromthe other allowances and bonuses. Not bad, even for mercenaries.
At the SSS, the top officials collect half-a-million pesos each month in salaries, aside from the usual allowances, bonusesand per diems. In addition, they get profit shares from private corporations where the SSS has invested billions ofmembers’ money.
For example, former SSS Chair Thelmo Cunanan last year collected P15.4 million in profit share from Union Bank,according to Sen. Franklin Drilon. That is in addition to P1.56 million in per diems. Former SSS President Romulo Neri alsogot the same amount, as well as Sergio Apostol, now a Leyte congressman.
In his defense, Cunanan said he and the other SSS executives deserve the profit share because “they took on immenseresponsibilities, as well as risks….”
What risks? The money they invested in Union Bank belongs not to them but to SSS members. And their responsibility isto the SSS members whose premiums it was they invested. It was the members’ money that was at risk, and therefore theprofit share should go to them. They were elected directors of the bank not because of their talents(?) and scintillatingpersonalities, but because of the SSS money (belonging to the members) that they invested in the bank.
The profit shares from private corporations where SSS money are invested should go back to the SSS, not to the people
who represent it and who are already handsomely paid. SSS money is invested so that it would grow and so that thebenefits to its members—without whom the SSS would be nothing—would also increase.
Let’s face it, the huge funds of the SSS (and also of the Government Service Insurance System) and Pag-IBIG are not dueto the talents and hard work of their officials. They come from the premiums deducted from the salaries of government andprivate employees, whether they like it or not. Without the officials lifting a finger, these premiums land on their laps everymonth. The profits from these funds should therefore go back to the members who own these funds.
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