SUWAPANG is the kindest Tagalog adjective available to describe the avaricious managements of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the Metro Iloilo Water District (MIWD).

I have become so tired of directly hitting callous GSIS general manager Winston Garcia in this column that I would praise instead the men and women of COURAGE who marched to the office of Presidential Assistant Raul Banias to amplify the mounting complaints of GSIS members against Garcia. COURAGE – or Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees – is the umbrella organization of 90 unions in the public sector with a combined membership of 150,000.

COURAGE – in media interviews with the participation of my younger brother Jesse – has chosen the case of our late mother, Alicia Legaspi-Vego, as a classic example of GSIS inefficiency. She died in June 2007 while literally begging in vain for her delayed six-month pension, a measly P30,000.00. Since then, we her heirs have already changed many pairs of shoes while walking up and down the GSIS-Iloilo building to claim that amount but to no avail. Kahit saan, kahit kalian, hindi maaasahan ang GSIS.

When one considers the thousands of other pensioners who have undergone similar rough treatment, one at once suspects that the collective millions of pesos for them actually end up in the pockets of corrupt GSIS officials. There’s no end to their greed.

No wonder seven Manila-based journalists have accused Winston Garcia of collecting P3.76 billion in commission for selling GSIS’ 27% stake at the Meralco to San Miguel Corporation for P30.8 billion.

Is that true, Winston? Congratulations!

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MIWD should henceforth be known as the Metro Iloilo Waterless District. In some places in Iloilo City – say Landheights and Villa Carolina subdivisions in Arevalo – there has not been a drop to drink in three straight months already. We have no choice but buy the more expensive drinking and washing water from private sources.

Apparently to appease the water consumers, citing major line repairs, the MIWD management has produced a radio ad begging for tolerance till December.

So be it. But what we can’t tolerate is being asked to pay for zero service. For three months of consuming zero cubic meter of water, residents of the above subdivisions are now being asked to pay P508.80 (including arrear penalty). The MIWD bill, adding insult to injury, comes with a letter saying, “If we fail to receive payment from you, we shall much to our regret discontinue service without prejudice to the right of the company to seek judicial or legal action.”

Did you hear that? They want to discontinue a service that has already been discontinued. Imagine the millions of pesos that MIWD would make from the helpless victims of that threat.

We wonder why Mayor Jerry Treñas has not lifted a finger to protect water consumers from this snake called MIWD. Since it’s under his administration that the price of residential water has doubled from P80 to P159 per cubic meter, shouldn’t the mayor bat for better, not bitter, water service?

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“Sa problema mo, may solusyon ako.”

This was what Boboy Syjujco announced when he first ran for congressman of the 2nd District of Iloilo in 1998.

Today, ten years later, we remember that campaign outcry because the man has the solution to the worsening unemployment problem. As director general of TESDA, Secretary Syjuco has persisted in his advocacy for technical-vocational trainings as the youth’s way out of poverty.

The thousands of TESDA trainees in welding, carpentry, masonry and other construction competencies are still not enough to fill the demand for Filipino workers abroad. Canada, for instance, has served notice of its need for TESDA trainees to send workers there next year to construct the facilities for its 2010 Winter Olympics.

It’s nice to know that quite a big number of TESDA trainees come from Pavia, whose mayor is a Syjuco critic. Boboy’s action speaks louder than Cadio’s words.

One Response to “GSIS, MIWD super ‘suwapang’”

• 1
  ROMELO SUSTITUIDO
  November 14th, 2008 23:19

  ha ha

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