House still lacks 11 sectoral reps

Recently I reported on the Senate inquiry into excessive multimillion-peso perks of SSS trustees. One of the five trustees named by Sen. Franklin Drilon phoned to rejoin. Basically the trustee stressed that:

• It’s already hard to make SSS members contribute to the provident fund; I make it harder by writing about how their contributions are used.

In effect, if SSS collections are falling, it’s the fault of whistleblowers.

• It’s not true that trustees get stupendous per diems and allowances, because it’s only a little below P100,000 per month.

In short, P100,000 is peanuts.

• The trustees deserve additional perks for sitting in the boards of private firms in which SSS owns stocks, because they gave up high pays in the private sector from which they were pirated.

One of the exposed trustees is an ex-general, another a judge; both have never before worked in the private sector. And whatever happened to “sacrifice” when requested to do a stint in the government?

• The Philex stock options were offered to the directors, including those representing SSS’ P14.3-billion bloc, not to the fund itself. That’s why they had to scrounge around for millions of pesos to pay for the shares.

I still think that since the P14.3 billion is our SSS money, all fruits of our investment should accrue to our fund. The trustees should have told the SSS about the stock options, then devised a way to acquire the shares for the fund, not for themselves. The profit — they bought at P1.90 per share and sold at P19.50 — would have been a windfall for the SSS, not them. Even before Drilon began investigating, SSS in-house lawyers already deemed illegal the trustees’ pocketing the stock options.

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Pending in the Comelec is a petition of the only 11 sectoral parties that got more than 2 percent of the votes for party-list last May. They rightly contend that since they had met the basic requirement for party-list voting, then their three nominees each should be proclaimed congressmen. But the Comelec has shelved the petition. It will rule only after the special elections in November in three provinces where the balloting failed last time, affecting about 500,000 votes. So the House of Representatives will lack 11 members till then.

The Constitution requires that sectoral reps make up one-fifth of the 250-seat House. The sectoral reps shall be picked from parties that are able to get at least 2 percent of the votes cast for party-list. The Comelec’s old interpretation was to proclaim one rep for every 2 percent garnered by a party. It also accredits just about any party that claims to embody the needy. Dozens of parties are listed in the ballots, yet only less than a fourth of voters pick any of them. As a result, only one or two parties would get more than 6 percent, two or three 4 percent, and eight to ten 2 percent. That’s why there used to be only 12 or so sectoral reps out of 235 occupied seats, or only 5 percent of the congressmen.

The Supreme Court re-interpreted the proclaiming. It ruled in 2008 that the threshold be broadened in order to fill up one-fifth of the House with sectoral reps. That is, parties that get 2 to 6 percent of the votes will divide the one-fifth seats proportionately among themselves. Those that garner 6 percent instantly will get three seats. Depending on the balance of seats to make one-fifth, those that get more than 2 percent can acquire not only one but two or even three seats.

Last May only one party got 6 percent. The Comelec proclaimed its three nominees forthwith. Eleven others got more than 2 percent, and were given two seats each. Something odd followed. The Comelec proclaimed 16 other reps from parties that did not even get 1 or 2 percent. Penultimate of the 16 was Mikey Arroyo, of Ang Galing Pinoy. Incidentally, all the seven Comelec commissioners are appointees of Mikey’s mom, former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Instead of the parties that met the threshold 2 percent getting first crack at one-fifth of the seats, the second-raters got in ahead.

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Mr. Alex Cauguiran denies being a midnight appointee in the Clark International Airport Corp. (Gotcha, 8 Sept. 2010). Having been reelected to the CIAC board before March 11, start of the election ban on presidential appointments, he said he is exempted from the definition.

Cauguiran also denies being petitioned by CIAC employees to leave: “What I recall are two controversial papers circulated among them. First was the one that called for retention of president Luciano. The second denounced their harassment into signing the first. Curiously both were signed by a majority of the workers.”

Lastly Cauguiran says he never lobbied for the Kuwaiti or Malaysian firms that proposed to operate Clark airport. He did question the flaws in the Korean proposal.

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Still on domestic tourism, La Union is the place for beginner surfers. Right along the coast in sleepy San Juan town is mid-priced Urbiz Garden Plage, with huts for day trips, and Balinese cottages for bed and breakfast. Easy to find: 134 Beachfront, McArthur Highway, Barangay Urbiztondo. For inquiries, call proprietor Nap Antonio or manager Bong Rodriguez, (072) 8887991; [email protected].

For more than just surfing there’s Thunderbird Resort in nearby Poro Point Freeport, San Fernando City. With huge sea-view hotel rooms, casino, disco bar, 18-hole golf course, Olympic-size pool, tennis courts, and drivers’ quarters, it’s the only one of its kind north of Manila. Contact: (072) 8887777; [email protected].

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 “Is time really lacking, or is it your enthusiasm that is flagging?” Shafts of Light, Fr. Guido Arguelles, SJ

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E-mail: [email protected]