Senate widens probe into GOCC execs' fat paychecks

The Senate finance committee is expanding the probe into fat paychecks and excessive perks executives of government-owned and controlled corporations supposedly received as the current administration, left with only P100 million in unappropriated budget by the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, scrambles to raise revenue collection and cap a burgeoning deficit. The panel will invite Former Economic Planning Secretary and Social Security System chief Romulo Neri to face another Senate inquiry. This time, the probe will not look into an allegedly anomalous broadband deal but the fat paychecks and excessive perks of GOCC executives. Senator Franklin Drilon, chair of the finance committee, said Sunday that Neri would be invited even if he no longer heads the SSS. President Benigno Aquino III recently appointed Emilio De Quiros as SSS president, who is yet to assume the position. The senator said the Senate panel would particularly ask Neri about SSS commissioners who sat as board members in corporations where SSS, the state-owned pension fund for private employees, has stakes. The Senate finance committee hearing is scheduled on Tuesday, August 24. "Aalamin natin kung saan nakaupo na board ang social security commissioners at magkano ang mga kinikita nila doon, at iyon ba ay tinu-turn over sa Social Security fund (We will scrutinize where Social Security commissioners sit as board members and how much they earned. We will also check if what was earned was turned over to the Social Security fund)," Drilon told radio dzBB in an interview. NBN-ZTE deal At a Senate blue ribbon committee hearing three years ago, Neri, then head of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), invoked executive privilege when the panel questioned him about details of his talks with former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in connection with the botched $329-million National Broadband Network deal. The Supreme Court later allowed Neri to invoke the privilege, saying his talks with Arroyo, now a congresswoman representing Pampanga' second district, was privileged communication. In the wake of the controversy, Arroyo transferred Neri from NEDA to SSS. Earlier this year, the Ombudsman slapped graft charges on Neri and former Commission on Elections chair Benjamin Abalos, who supposedly offered Neri a P200-million bribe if NEDA would approve the deal with China's Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment (ZTE) Corp. Arroyo canceled the deal in September 2007 when allegations of corruption and overpricing was exposed by the media. Both Neri and Abalos pleaded not guilty to the graft charges lodged against them at the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan. August 24 hearing On Sunday, Drilon said that his committee will also summon SSS chair Thelmo Cunanan, husband of erstwhile Philippine Daily Inquirer columinist Belinda Cunanan. He earlier said that officials of Clark Development Corp. (CDC), Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System, and other GOCCs would be summoned for the August 24 hearing to shed light on their "excessive" paychecks. Drilon had long insisted that all bonuses and allowances of GOCC executives, by virtue of representation as board members of private corporations, should go to the fund that they represent. He likewise urged Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and Budget Secretary Butch Abad to look into the matter as the cash-starved government scrambles for revenues in the face of an expected P325-billion budget deficit this year. For his part, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said that President Aquino has the prerogative to axe erring GOCC officials, whom the President said should have the delicadeza if they are getting excessive allowances and other perks. "There has to be a certain amount of shame among people working in the government," Enrile told dzBB radio in a separate interview. SBMA's Arreza asks for fairness Last week, Drilon listed the highest-paid GOCC executives in the last three years, including Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority administrator Armand Arreza (P26.9 million last year), CDC chief executive officer Benigno Ricafort (P14.5 million), Development Bank of the Philippines deputy executive officer Edgardo Garcia (P12.7 million), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Gov. Armando Tetangco Jr. (P10.8 million), and DBP executive vice president Benedicto Bitonio Jr. (P9.3 million). Arreza's compensation package included P100,000 transportation allowance, P1.8 million gasoline allowance, and P5.7 million intelligence fund, Drilon said. Senator Ralph Recto also revealed that GOCCs racked up P682 million in "representation and entertainment expenses" in 2008. On Sunday, Arreza said there is nothing anomalous about the compensation he and other GOCC officials receive. He also asked the public to treat them fairly. "Ito [GOCC officials] naman ay nagbibigay ng serbisyong marangal. Mali naman na sila ay crucified by publicity (GOCC officials provide ethical service, so it is wrong that they are crucified by publicity)," Arreza said in another dzBB interview. —VS, GMANews.TV