SOCIAL Security System president Emmanuel Dooc is facing a graft complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman for failure to sanction insurance companies over non-payment of P1.6 billion for two separate fire incidents.
In a 16-page complaint-affidavit, Abeto Uy, Steel Corp. of the Philippines chairman and chief executive officer, through his lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, blamed Dooc for causing undue injury not only to his firm, but also to the government “through manifest partiality, bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence.”
He said Dooc must be held liable for violation of Section 3(e) of Republic Act 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Arsenio Evangelista of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption joined Uy as a complainant in the case.
Dooc is one of the three lawyers from San Beda College, appointed in the Duterte administration.
In other SSS developments, Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate on Monday criticized the proposal to raise the Social Security System member contributions to boost the firm’s fund life amid the looming implementation of the P2,000 monthly pension for SSS pensioners.
“This is a Grinch-like proposal that only spoils the justness of providing the long-awaited pension hike of our SSS pensioners,” said Zarate, one of the principal authors of House Joint Resolution No. 10 granting the two-step, across-the-board increase of P2,000 in the SSS monthly pension.
“During the House and Senate hearings, SSS Chairman Amado Valdez explicitly said raising membership premium is the least, even last, of their options. In fact, if at all, government subsidy for the pension fund as provided for by the SSS charter is even higher in their options,” Zarate added.
The adjustment in member contribution was floated by the country’s economic managers, who have recommended to Duterte the P2,000 pension hike be made contingent on a corresponding adjustment in the contributions of employers, employees, self-employed individuals and volunteer members to save the pension fund from bankruptcy.
The camp of Uy called on President Rodrigo Duterte to reconsider Dooc’s appointment at the SSS, saying being a Bedan must not be consideration to appoint government officials.
Duterte obtained a law degree from San Beda College of Law in 1972.
The Department of Justice sacked ex-immigration commissioner Al Argosino and Michael Robles, who both graduated from the San Beda College of Law, for a P50-million extortion case involving Chinese gambling operator Jack Lam.
According to Topacio, Dooc, as the former chief of Insurance Commission, could be “administratively sanctioned” for acts and commissions contrary to laws and regulations; unreasonable, unfair, oppressive or discriminatory, and inconsistent with the general course of the Insurance Commission’s functions, “and otherwise irregular, immoral or devoid of justification.” With PNA
