This resignation of SSS President Corazon dela Paz, and the appointment of Romulo Neri as her replacement, gives me the shivers.
The official Fortress line on why she resigned was the usual health reasons, old age, and desire to go back to the private sector – those three, politically-safe reasons for resigning. But this being the Arroyo regime, a resignation is always politically suspect. While she reiterated the reasons for her resignation, dela Paz also cited “confluence of reasons,” which she’d rather keep to herself “at this point.”
Mystery, mystery.
Anyway, the Social Security System is the state-controlled pension fund for private employees. It handles billions of pesos and invests them into several revenue-generating avenues, and pays out retirement pension to its members. It also provides loans to its members.
My problem is Neri’s character. In a PR parlance, he is easy to handle. Remember how he buckled during the NBN-ZTE hearings? He already saw corruption in the eyes, and what did he do?
SSS is a good target for raiding. Remember that during Estrada’s time, Equitable Bank bought the larger PCI Bank with the help of SSS and GSIS funds. And after Estrada’s aborted impeachment trial (no thanks to conspirators), the merged Equitable PCI Bank got into hot water, seeing its stock price dive, making a paper loss to both pension funds. So when Banco de Oro broached the idea of buying EPCIB, some people balked, since both pension funds would have to sell at a price much lower than the price when these funds acquired stakes in EPCIB. And the BDO acquisition was not without controversy, with both fund playing key roles in the deal.
Neri had been director general of the National Economic Development Authority. It is a sensitive and powerful position; the position has the power to doom a big ticket project. As such, it is a prime target of opportunists. On this, Neri had failed. Now, we should expect the same thing to happen when he becomes SSS president.
Ms. dela Paz’s “confluence of reasons” is interesting. I am not ready to buy the health-and-old-age reasons. If it was the case, why did she have to say “confluence of reasons?” Maybe she had enough of Arroyo’s micromanagement skills. And here enters Neri. I will not speculate anymore; I am just afraid that my father’s and my contributions to the fund would be used for nefarious means.
Last Thursday, HTC Southeast Asia (HTC SEA) unveiled HTC Touch Diamond to reporters and bloggers at the Renaissance Hotel in Makati. Some pundits dubbed this as HTC’s answer to Apple’s iPhone, and a reporter asked if this is HTC’s iPhone killer. Kevin Hou (pictured, right), Managing Director of HTC SEA answered this question by saying that they are not out to kill anyone or anything. HTC Touch Diamond is being differentiated from the iPhone through its impressive specifications contained within a small phone.
