They should go deeper in SSS probe

Finally, they have suspended the top SSS officials who could be involved in various shady investments of our trust fund during the Estrada administration. Their suspension should have happened at about the same time that Lanny Nañagas was moved out of SSS. But I wonder if this is all part of a zarzuela of sorts.

I am not too sure using the Equitable-PCIBank transaction is the best way of convicting the top SSS officials. I think that is the most easily defensible of the alleged anomalous transactions. For one thing, it will be easy to compare the SSS bid with a number of other similar bids. If at all, the failure to do due diligence is the only weak point of the transaction. But that is also done in normal business transactions for which a discount is given

Why wasn’t the Belle transaction used instead? That’s the transaction which even Erap’s man at SSS, Carlos Arellano himself confessed as being inimical to the interest of the members. At worst, the PCIBank deal is a long term buy. The Belle transaction is unadulterated junk ...basura... with no hope of recovery. I want to believe there will be a series of cases filed and not just one.

Incidentally, I saw a draft bill prepared by suspended SSS executive vice president Horace Templo that proposes to make the position of SSS president a career one. Given the record of Templo and the other suspended career officials, I wonder if that is a good move. At the very least, they did not voice any protest when the trust fund was being raided by Erap’s boys. What’s worse, well... let us just wait for the results of the cases filed and to be filed at the Ombudsman.

Curiously, Templo’s messenger delivered the draft to an aide of Sen. Manny Villar. I wonder if Villar agreed to sponsor the bill for past favors from Templo. The first controversial accommodation of SSS during Erap’s time was for Villar’s in-laws. Templo tried to defend that deal to me using a poorly done project study as basis.

Would you believe that Templo agreed to entrust a billion pesos (or was it P2 B?) of our trust fund to a project based on a study that assumes electricity expenses for a cinema in a mall at only in the vicinity of P20,000 a month? A normal bill for a middle income household then would already be at least P5,000 a month.

As a rule I like to trust career technocrats. Under normal conditions, Templo and his colleagues should fall under this category. But they too can be tempted... to keep quiet or worse, well, lets just take it from the true confessions of Chucky Arellano after Erap was booted out of office.

What went wrong

Top private sector executive Jun Berba e-mailed to us his reaction to our column last Wednesday. It is an honor to hear from someone like Jun, one of the top management achievers in this country who was a pioneer in a number of industries and ventures. Here is his e-mail.

I read your column often, and many times I agree with you. Of course I don’t normally write my reactions for simple "lack of time" I am now at home recuperating from an operation, and therefore with some time to spare for reading and even reacting.

I guess I must be older than you, having been born a few years before WW 2. I am not sure we should blame the Japanese or the war for our current misfortunes. We probably brought it upon ourselves due to creeping apathy and inaction. I am a product of the public school system (Burgos Elementary, Mapa High just like Wash SyCip and Fred Velayo my former bosses), and UP. I can say that the teachers then were people we really respected and who themselves felt pride in their profession. They were a very important part of our character formation. They were not exploited in the 50s and 60s as they are now.

Then in those early postwar years we looked up to senators and congressmen as respectable "servants of the people". We had the likes of Recto, Tañada, Sumulong, Diokno, Laurel .... and later a Ninoy Aquino, ...and mayors like Arsenio Lacson (a different breed of Lacson)..... We had the PMA graduates as models of integrity and honor ! I still remember names of generals who behaved with dignity and honor and were looked up to by all.

When and why did we go downhill? We, including myself, got deluded by our perception of progress without a foundation of VALUES, maybe during the Marcos years. Not to blame Marcos, but only ourselves for just watching on the sidelines. There is a poster which says "There are three kinds of people – those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened". I have one hanging in my den. Unfortunately at this point we are wondering "WHAT HAPPENED?"

Boo, keep on writing the way you do. It is refreshing.

Thanks.

Well, here’s wishing for Jun’s speedy recovery.

Citibank customer disservice

Last week, Citibank’s ATM network all over the US went on the blink. Arrangements had to be made for the two million US-based customers of Citibank to use the ATMs of rival banks.

Maybe it was not the week for Citibank. Back here, I was having problems with their customer service. It all started when I ordered some items from their credit card rewards program. The electric fan was delivered promptly but the toaster was not.

I finally decided to check. I tried using Citibank’s customer service number and really got frustrated. A recorded voice greeted me telling me to press 1, 2, 3, up to 8 or 9 depending on what I needed. I needed 2 so I pressed 2. Nothing happened. The recorded message went on again asking me to press 1, 2, 3, etc. I dialed again and the same thing happened. I gave up.

The fax number I used to place my order was not working. It just kept on ringing. So I tried the website. I had to fill up a long Q and A of who I am when all I wanted to do was to write them a simple e-mail. The following day I got an auto reply from them that gave me a few more numbers to try.

I tried the new numbers, sent them a couple of faxes with a request to reply within 24 hours. Nothing happened. I still don’t know what happened to my bloody toaster. If they don’t have the stock they should at least let me know. I wonder if the DTI has something to say about this.

Two brothers

Here’s another one from reader Chito Santos.

The priest was instructing a class of third-graders at All Saints grammar school. "There were two brothers, and one of them chose the wicked path of Satan. He was evil and did great damage to many people. The law finally caught up with him and he ended up a convicted criminal.

"But the other brother studied hard and became a successful, knowledgeable lawyer. He was also elected a member of Congress. "Now, children, what is the difference between these two brothers, who both started out in the same place?"

Little Johnny raised his hand and said, "Easy. One of them got caught."

(Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected])