spot_img
28 C
Philippines
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Increased presence in conflict-torn Mindanao

- Advertisement -

Barely two days after that bloody 12-hour “misencounter” in Mamasapano, Maguindanao between the Special Action Force of the Philippine National Police and the 105th Base Command of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces, President and General Manager Robert G. Vergara of the Government Service and Insurance System flew to Iligan City to meet for a dialogue his 200 or more GSIS members and pensioners. 

In that January 25 “misencounter,” 44 SAF commandos were massacred according to PNoy while 18 MILF-BIAF fighters were killed according to MILF chief peace negotiator Mohagher Iqbal. 

In fact, Iligan City is 252 kilometers away from Mamasapano, a distance of a good 4-hour land trip via the Pan-Philippine Highway. The route cuts across the heart of Muslim-dominated Maguindanao, Cotabato City, Matanog, Malabang and towns bordering the eastern side of Lake Lanao before reaching Marawi City.

These places remind us of another Maguindanao town – the now unforgettable Ampatuan – where 58 people including 34 journalists were massacred and buried using a backhoe on November 23, 2009.

More than five years ago as of today, we have not seen the conviction of members of a political clan who have been positively identified in court. Their detention – in comfort and luxury – seems to be the best way we could make them pay for their crimes notwithstanding PNoy’s personal interest in prosecuting other political criminals.

- Advertisement -

Still, flying to Mindanao while sorrow, disgust, anger and uncertainty still gripped the nation would be avoided by cowards and danger-averse among us.

But could the GSIS president simply postpone his trip that he had scheduled long before the “misencounter?” After all, he has adopted for GSIS “inclusive growth and poverty reduction” as its institutional mission. He has also envisioned it to be “the premier pension fund institution and a center for providing world-class service” by 2020.

Perhaps his achievements during his four years at GSIS have emboldened him that January 27 to dialogue with members and pensioners who were seeing for the first time a GSIS president.

Confidently, he thus reported the GSIS financial achievements in 2014 – assets of P910 billion, revenues of P153 billion from members’ contributions and investment earnings, and a “healthy 34 years” of actuarial fund life.  

These financial achievements have funded the institution’s increase of its minimum monthly pension to P5,000; the restoration of widows’ pensions that were suspended because they were receiving income or pension from other institutions; and the discontinuance of the Claims and Loans Interdependency Policy where the outstanding loan balances of retiring members were deducted from their benefits.

He reported that GSIS had deployed nearly a thousand kiosks nationwide in provincial, city and municipal offices, Department of Education’s district offices, and selected Robinsons’ malls; launched a contact center that can be reached 24 hours and seven days a week; and established 58 service desks in remote areas that are open twice a week.

The mandatory personal appearance of pensioners in its offices, the failure of which before meant pension suspension – this, he has discontinued.

The procedure still applies to pensioner-residents, unfortunately, of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. They must still report personally to GSIS offices. 

But when GSIS committed to pursue inclusive growth and poverty reduction, didn’t it obligate itself to provide the same basic services to all its members and pensioners, whoever and wherever they are – Muslim or Christian, in peaceful urban centers or in conflict-torn remote Mindanao villages?

Like the Social Security System, GSIS is present in most urban centers of Mindanao, including in Cotabato City which is the political, historical and business center of Maguindanao. But in Muslim-dominated Marawi City, only the almost universal PhilHealth has put up an office.

Our social security institutions must admit that they remain inaccessible to a great number of Mindanaoans. Don’t they travel hundreds of kilometers just to reach the nearest GSIS, SSS or PhilHealth office and commute for hours in rugged terrains?

Indeed, the dangerous peace and order situation in certain areas in Mindanao is preventing these institutions from effectively extending their offices to the residents of these areas. The lives of their employees are put on the line.

We still remember the unsolved murder of SSS Iligan City branch head Eutiquio Salise by members of a fraud syndicate, and the close range shooting of a division chief in Zamboanga City and two supervisors in Cotabato City.

For these assaults, SSS closed its offices for months, re-opening only when local leaders promised it of improved peace and order conditions.

Can GSIS, SSS and PhilHealth then be faulted for failing to fully realize inclusive growth, poverty reduction, and universal coverage in our own country? Perhaps, no.

Yet our people deserve the same universal social security benefits and services whether they work or live in peaceful or conflict-torn areas. This is their right.

Thus, with or without that Mamasapano “misencounter,” GSIS, SSS and PhilHealth should increase their presence in all conflict-torn areas of Mindanao.

They are now doing this aggressively in air-conditioned shopping malls and far-away USA, Europe, Middle East, Asia and everywhere else.

- Advertisement -

LATEST NEWS

Popular Articles