SSS honors Balikat awardees

Everybody either laughed or groaned when Development Bank of the Philippines president and chief executive officer Simon Paterno went up the stage for the third time during the 2002 Balikat ng Bayan Awards traditionally given by the Social Security System during its anniversary. DBP was cited as the best participating financial institution, in all categories, for the loan programs of the SSS and the best in the social development loan category.

DBP and Philippine Savings Bank–were given special awards for being the first banks to offer a daily remittance scheme for informal sector members of the SSS.

Being a government financial institution supervised by the Department of Finance, the guest of honor was Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho. It was Mr. Camacho who convinced then recently retired PricewaterhouseCooper chairman Corazon de la Paz to join the SSS as president. – MJGrey