GSIS officials under investigation for alleged anomalies

Embattled Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) president and general manager Winston Garcia is cracking the whip on executives and officials allegedly involved in anomalous transactions.

Garcia, however, refused to identify the GSIS officials now under investigation for their alleged involvement in anomalous activities, which were discovered following the computerization of GSIS records.

"I am now doing a purge of the people inside. This web is widespread inside GSIS but the noose is now slowly turning on them," he said.

Garcia told reporters that a senior vice president and several managers are among those under investigation.

"There is now one senior vice president who is about to be suspended for alleged anomalies. There are now a lot of managers who will be suspended or dismissed because of their syndicated rackets that we have discovered inside GSIS," he said.

Last Thursday, Garcia filed plunder charges against four GSIS officials in Tarlac before the Office of the Ombudsman for their alleged involvement in a housing loan scam that defrauded the GSIS of P413 million.

The subjects of the complaint were Tarlac field office manager Amado Inocentes, division chief Celestino Cabalitasan, property appraiser Maria Victoria Leonardo and senior general insurance specialist Jerry Balagtas.

"On record, we have filed a complaint of plunder. This is just the tip of the iceberg," Garcia said.

Meanwhile, Garcia said he suspects GSIS personnel affected by his anti-graft drive may be among those behind efforts to oust him.

"Confidential documents are now appearing just to embarrass me and to put pressure on me to resign. But I will not give in to these syndicates... If I go down, I will go down fighting. I will not allow these syndicates, as long as I am president and general manager, to prosper again in the GSIS," he said.

Though Garcia has not vowed to resign, he also said he does not expect any assistance from Malacañang.

"I am defending myself. I am taking full responsibility for my actions. I am on my own. I don’t need anybody to defend myself," he said.

Earlier, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Garcia should answer all accusations hurled against him point by point as Malacañang will not defend him.

Garcia reiterated that there was nothing anomalous in the loans he secured from the GSIS for a luxury vehicle and a house.

"There was nothing wrong... This is a privilege of members that I am just availing myself of. (A) salary loan is based on basic salary, (so) a member can now borrow up to eight months worth of their basic salary," he said.

Garcia explained that he, as GSIS president, receives a monthly salary of P350,000 and housing loans are now based on an employee’s capacity to pay. "What is your net paying capacity, you can borrow."

He said he is ready to meet with protesting groups tomorrow and discuss issues hurled against him.

"We are extending our invitation to these rallyists to a dialogue and to discuss the issues they want to raise. There will be no dispersals," Garcia said.

He also said a five-man panel from the GSIS, composed of executives, is prepared to meet representatives of the protesting groups.

"They can also appoint a panel of five to dialogue with my panel on all issues concerning GSIS. We have always extended our hand to a dialogue," Garcia said.

He appealed to them not to become unruly during the dialogue.

"We should not resort to mob rule. People will only turn to violence if they run out of arguments. We are extending our hand to them and inviting them to (a) dialogue. We are confident that all these issues will be answered. If they require me to be present, I will face them," Garcia said.

The GSIS is also seeking the assistance of the National Bureau of Investigation in unmasking and prosecuting syndicates that have preyed on GSIS members for the past several years, possibly through the connivance of some unscrupulous GSIS personnel.

GSIS legal counsel Estrella Elamparo said policy changes and reforms initiated by Garcia "has apparently stirred up a hornet’s nest of racketeers who want to exploit the GSIS as their milking cow for as long as possible."

"These racketeers have been engaged in the nefarious practice of claiming the pension of long-deceased members of the GSIS and taking out loans using the identities of unsuspecting members. With reforms instituted in the GSIS by the incumbent leadership, these racketeers have come to realize that their happy days are numbered," she said.

Elamparo said these alleged racketeers "have aligned themselves with other shady interest groups, including those salivating over the reinsurance of the National Power Corp., in an organized effort to discredit the present leadership in the GSIS."

At the same time, the Senate committee on government corporations and public enterprises, chaired by Sen. Richard Gordon, will investigate the GSIS employees’ complaints that Garcia mismanaged state workers’ pension funds.

Gordon, who is still out of the country attending the Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in Geneva, said he will immediately set the date of the hearing once he returns to the country next week.

"These issues cannot simply be discussed in the court of public opinion. This is a very serious matter because we are dealing with the money of the Filipino people," he said.

Gordon said all parties involved in the controversy will be given the opportunity to air their side in the interest of conducting a fair and productive investigation.

He asked Garcia and other GSIS officials, as well as Garcia’s accusers, to prepare to explain their side because his committee will not accept "half-baked explanations."

"There is a need to examine evidence to sort through the allegations hurled by parties involved. Congress and the public must base their judgment on facts. Until then, let us have some measure of sobriety on this issue," Gordon said. — With Jose Rodel Clapano