‘Unending cycle of self-reward’

“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.” (Luke 6:24)

Our trust in those tasked to manage the resources of the people has been severely challenged these recent days. The people-owned but state-run Social Security System (SSS) has made things worse.

We are appalled at the hypocrisy of SSS officials who had  the gall to award themselves millions of pesos in performance bonuses while refusing to raise retirees’ pensions and demanding higher contributions from the already struggling private sector workers. SSS president Emil de Quiros was reported as saying that the state pension fund will not be able to meet its obligations after 2039 unless its members’ monthly contributions are increased from 10.4 to 11 percent (“SSS head defends bonuses; says everyone got them,” Inquirer.net, 10/5/13).

Performance is more than attendance at meetings, and if the pension fund has become so precarious, what’s the justification for its directors’ performance bonuses? Outstanding issues relative to the SSS have yet to be resolved—e.g., the legitimacy of bonuses previous directors gifted themselves with; the more than P788 million that the SSS overcharged (in 2011 alone) its member-borrowers. Time and again SSS money, which belongs to the backbone of industry, the workers, has been misused.

At this critical time in the life of our nation, when our trust in government is so challenged, especially when it comes to public finances, all public officials should demonstrate impeccable integrity in dealing with the people’s resources and welfare. We therefore call on government and the SSS directors to be more transparent on how and where they use the people’s money, if only to dispel talk that government has an interest in increasing the SSS contributions so that there is more money for bonuses and investments in private-public partnerships.

Given that the SSS is owned by its members, we also call on government to be transparent when it comes to the SSS’ investment strategy and which entities SSS money is invested in.

Transparency, accountability and efficient service are the only way government can regain the people’s faith in the integrity of its financial management.

We join the workers in their protest against the excesses in the SSS and urge the private sector to do likewise.  We pray, too, that Congress will be more caring and pass House Bill No. 175 which seeks to increase the pension of retired workers.

This unending cycle of self-reward at the expense of millions of private workers reminds us of Isaiah 29:15-16:  “Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the LORD, and whose deeds are done in a dark place, and they say, ‘Who sees us?  Who knows us?’ You turn things around!”

We pray to our God of light and truth, that we may be a people and nation upon whom the light shines, and who need not to live in fear and anxiety.

—THE MOST REV. EPHRAIM S. FAJUTAGANA

Obispo Maximo XII,

Iglesia Filipina Independiente

and chair, National Council

of Churches in the Philippines;

REV. REX RB REYES JR.,

general secretary, NCCP