PNoy rejects SSS pension hike bill

[anonemus]

Pakshet.

----

At the Mercury Drugstore the other day, I overheard two senior citizens discussing about the President’s veto of the P2, 000 peso a month increase for members of the Social Security System.

One was telling the other about the commentaries of DZMM’s Ted Failon which she fully agreed.*“Bakit nila binigyan ang sarili nila ng bonus na P1 milyon tig-isa kapag Pasko kung wala pa lang pera para sa mga miembro?”

The lady said bonuses are given as reward for good performance but the she cited the report of the Commission on Audit that the SSS owns many assets that are idle that have resulted in losses amounting to over a hundred million pesos yearly.

“Bad management yun. Bakit sila may bonus?” the lady asked to which the other one senior citizen fully agreed.

ABS-CBN reported that among the properties owned by the SSS are 102 condominium units in seven condominium buildings in the National Capital Region; 44,000 square meters of office space, 16 residential houses and 69 parking lots, all valued at P17.956 billion.

The idle status of the assets means that the SSS is “(deprived) of an estimated P198.118 million in a year when occupied/rented, computed based on the lowest rental rate of lessees in the condominium units, office/store spaces, houses or parking lots,” ABS-CBN quoted the COA report.

On top of these, COA also found more idle properties of SSS in Mindanao, particularly the 15 units in Pryce Tower condominium located in Pryce Business Park, J.P Laurel, Bajada, Davao City.

SSS also acquired Pryce Tower’s parking slots, as well as 663 units of memorial lots in various measurements in Mt. Apo Garden Memorial Lots in Barangay Calinan, Davao.

“The idle/unoccupied properties incurred fixed costs such as association dues, electricity and water bills, repairs and maintenance, and manpower without any return on invested capital,” COA said.

- See more at: ellen tordesillas » Doble ?gudtime?

[machine.pistol]

The economies of a number of European countries who followed the welfare state model but whose economies were not as strong as Germany's turned belly up because they could not sustain that model. The result was a cutback on welfare expenditures which resulted in mass actions and riots.

[machine.pistol]

Pakshet.

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On top of these, COA also found more idle properties of SSS in Mindanao, particularly the 15 units in Pryce Tower condominium located in Pryce Business Park, J.P Laurel, Bajada, Davao City.

SSS also acquired Pryce Tower’s parking slots, as well as 663 units of memorial lots in various measurements in Mt. Apo Garden Memorial Lots in Barangay Calinan, Davao.

- See more at: ellen tordesillas » Doble ?gudtime?

The Pryce Group of Companies of the Escano family of CDO went through several years of corporate rehabilitation. I suspect the SSS was a lender to this group. As payment for its debt, the group assigned those memorial lots and condo units to SSS who now has to dispose of them. Problem though is SSS is not a realtor and would not know how to sell those lots and units.

[Tj_abs]

Saw this last night.. Hmm sss ? I smell something..

[cast_no_shadow]

What's fishy?

Hindi naman government plate.


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[Roden Villegas]

What's wrong with the plate?

Baka naman pangalan nung may ari ay Saturnino Sevilla Sanchez kaya SSS

[cast_no_shadow]

OT

May kakilala si esmi ang name

Santos (first name)
Santos (middle name)
Santos (last name)

Kasi hindi siya naka LC [emoji16]


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[Flipo]

Menorca, SSS pension hike, etc.: My 2 cents’ worth
By: Solita Collas-Monsod
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:50 AM January 23rd, 2016

The SSS pension increase. Another senatorial candidate who has my vote is Serge Osmeña. He alone, among the senators who voted for the pension increase bill (Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile rejected it outright, the only one), has admitted fault and has said unambiguously that President Aquino was in the right for vetoing the bill. The excuse Serge gave was that he had 54 bills that had to get out within two weeks, and this one was not one of them. As excuses go, that’s pretty good. He at first tried to pin the responsibility on the President (i.e., that Mr. Aquino could have unilaterally raised the contribution rate of Social Security System members), but then backed off because the Senate as well could have done that. The important thing is that he would rather be unpopular than be fiscally irresponsible, and will not do anything that could backlash against the nation. Good for him.

To be fair, the House of Representatives, when it passed the bill, also passed a companion bill that gives the SSS board the authority to decide on contribution rates (now only the President or Congress can do so). The Senate did not pass the companion bill, which would have made everything all right. Question: Serge seems to be the only responsible (aside from Enrile) member of the Senate. But don’t most of our presidential and vice-presidential candidates come from the Senate? What does that make of them?

And if they really care for the SSS pensioners, all they have to do is pass the companion bill or raise the contribution rates of SSS members. In other words, be responsible.

[telletron]

OT

May kakilala si esmi ang name

Santos (first name)
Santos (middle name)
Santos (last name)

Kasi hindi siya naka LC [emoji16]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Haha.. Wala na ata alam na ipangalan ang magulang nila kaya puro family name nalang.

[CVT]

Interesting.

Highest-paid SSS executive: A foundling of cronyism and patronage | The Manila Times Online

Highest-paid SSS executive: A foundling of cronyism and patronage
February 18, 2016 12:57 am


YEN MAKABENTA
by YEN MAKABENTA
The Aquino administration knows no other way to manage and do things than by patronage and cronyism. Every time there is an appointment to be made, Aquino turns to a crony. Every time there is a government contract to be awarded, he picks a crony. And when there is a dangerous operation to be launched, he picks a crony.

This is the valedictory insight of Reader Hector as he said farewell, before decamping for Singapore after a spell of working and living with us.
Hector, whom readers will remember as the author of �The Philippines is an Onion� said glumly and cheerfully, �I am thankful that I will soon be uplifted by the 1st world standards and values of Singapore, rather than depressed by the 3rd world myopia and self-interest which permeates the Philippines.�

This is a pity, because Hector has been lending his time and knowhow to the critical and constructive analysis of what is really ailing the Philippines and what is stopping us from realizing our potential for dynamism in the global economy.

He says in frustration that from what he has seen, we are �a nation of takers, not creators.� Too many people make too much money without effort, or without making any real contribution, in this country. We are now a nation controlled by oligarchs and dynasts.
In his critique of cronyism under Aquino, Hector says that among its most pernicious results are greater poverty and inequality in our society, because it stunts meritocracy from taking root and condemns national life to mediocrity.


SSS as den of patronage and cronyism
Significantly, he pointed to the Social Security System (SSS) as a den of patronage and cronyism.
He used to be a trustee of a large corporate pension fund, so he is familiar with the kind of expertise required for managing and administering a massive pension system like the SSS. He presumed that SSS must have experts in its executive positions.

When he got hold of a list of the annual salaries and compensation of SSS executives (see chart), his attention was immediately drawn to the name of Eliza Bettina Antonio because she is being paid the most � P6 million pesos a year. And it�s only a part-time job for her.

Although she is just an SSS commissioner, Ms. Antonio�s salary exceeds that of the board chairman Juan Santos and SSS president Emilio de Quiros. It seems gallant of them to take less money than the young lady. But it�s not gallantry at all; they are just bowing to the wishes of the people who placed them in the SSS.

The questions now being raised, within the system and in corporate boardrooms, are: Is Ms. Antonio an expert in actuarial science? Does she have a Wharton MBA, Wharton being famous for the training of finance managers and executives?

Through routinary sleuthing and research, Hector learned that Ms. Antonio is a graduate in HRM (hotel and restaurant management) and was an intern at Four Seasons Hotel. From out of the blue, at the young age of 30, she was appointed as a commissioner of the SSS, and then in short order she landed on the boards of Philex and Union Bank, to represent the pension fund.

How did Ms. Antonio get her SSS appointment? Who recommended her?

This is where the story gets sticky and potentially messy. Before 2010, according to Hector, Ms. Antonio worked as an administrator for Mar Roxas, who now aspires to become the next president of the Philippines.

Ms. Antonio�s good fortune and career is emblematic of the policy of patronage and cronyism of the Aquino presidency, which makes appointments purely on the basis of friendship, kinship, and class association at the Ateneo.

No school has benefited more from the Aquino presidency than the Ateneo. If there are individual cronies, there is now also a crony school. No citizens have been the recipient of more spoils than Aquino�s classmates, as the tracing of connections has stretched all the way to grade school, high school and college. Only kindergarten was excluded, because his classmates there were girls.

A preview of how Roxas will lead?

Ms. Antonio�s appointment to the SSS cannot be laid at Aquino�s door. It is more likely that Mar Roxas was chiefly responsible for her appointment and meteoric rise at the SSS.

Top officials of the SSS are cohorts of Roxas in the Hyatt 10 conspiracy against former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The setup was envisioned from the beginning when the group wormed their way into the inner circle of the Aquino presidency, taking all the plum finance positions in the Cabinet like finance and budget, and all the huge government and financial corporations like the SSS, the GSIS, the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and others.

Hyatt 10 was like an octopus, and no one spread its tentacles more widely than Roxas and Budget Secretary Florencio Abad.
From the beginning, Abad, who fancies himself as a political strategist, and Roxas, who feels entitled to be the successor of Aquino, had a game plan of commandering taxpayers money to finance Roxas� march to the presidency. The details of the scheme are finally unfolding as the election campaign has gotten under way.

To return to the subject of SSS patronage and cronyism, the connections of Ms. Antonio were so good, she got her mother appointed by President Aquino as chairperson of the Mindanao Development Authority.

Now, we must wonder whether with Ms. Antonio�s story, we are getting a preview of how Mar Roxas will lead, and how power will be exercised to benefit friends and family.

yenmakabenta*yahoo.com

Seated, President Aquino and fellow Big Shot. Standing behind them, Bettina Antonio and Mar Roxas.

There was a comment in that article that she should be Ms. Antonino [not Antonio]