Senate formally asks Aquino to cancel GOCC bonuses

The Senate passed a resolution Wednesday asking President Benigno Aquino III to immediately suspend the allowances and bonuses of board members of government financial institutions (GFIs) and government-owned and -controlled corporations (GOCCs). Senate Resolution 17, filed by Senator Franklin Drilon, asked Aquino to suspend the bonuses – except per diems – of GFI and GOCC board members pending the enactment of legislation. Drilon’s resolution also asked the President to compel board members to turn over directors' fees, bonuses, stock options, allowances, and other benefits they have received while on the governing boards of private companies where the GFI or GOCC has investments. "The board of directors should only be entitled to per diems as it is traditionally given to them," Drilon said in an interview before the Senate adopted the resolution on the floor. The Senate finance committee, chaired by Drilon, is currently probing huge compensation packages executives of GFIs and GOCCs are reportedly receiving in violation of Executive Order No. 20 that capped their pay increases. The probe seeks to help the Aquino administration plug a burgeoning budget deficit. Drilon filed S.R. 17 after it was revealed that officials and employees the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System (MWSS) received P127 million in unwarranted "bonuses" for sitting as board members of a mining company from 2007 to 2010. On the other hand, the board of trustees of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) each received about P6 million in salaries and perks in 2009. "This is immoral, this is indecent, this is something that must be stopped," said Drilon. The senator, however, noted that S.R. 17 does not cover other GFI and GOCC executives and employees. "We cannot touch them at this point unless its part of a comprehensive reform that we intend to do through legislation," he said in the interview. Drilon is keeping his fingers crossed that President Aquino will immediately act on the Senate resolution. "As we debate, as we do our hearings, as we try to come up with reasonable preparations how to deal with this, the bonuses are accruing to these governing boards," he said. —VS, GMANews.TV