Three days later, this PR man again approached me and said that Garcia had spoken by phone with Ambassador Rodolfo Arizala who lives in Santiago , Chile. Arizala confirmed to me that Garcia indeed called him.

According to Arizala, Garcia asked him if he had a "www.Skype.com account". Since he had no idea what a Skype account was, Garcia promised to send him more details by email.

Arizala subsequently received an email from GSIS vice president for public affairs Ella Valencerina giving him instructions on how to open a Skype account through which GSIS can process his eCard and Voice Activation enrollment.

***

It is nice to know that Garcia is attending to Arizala's case. But how about Floro Pimentel, 91, in Melbourne Australia and Adelaida Fajilago who is in a nursing home in New York ? (I wonder if the money that "disappeared" from the eCard account of Jack Smith, 87, of Los Angeles has been restored.) Indeed, how about the hundreds, if not thousands, of old-age pensioners like them who have not been paid their pension for years and who, according to the law, "shall receive their benefits in full as and when they fall due"?

***

As mentioned in this space last week, public school teachers and non-teaching personnel of the Department of Education (DepEd) who make up about 40 percent of the total GSIS membership have decided to file a billion-peso class suit against the System.

Their main reason for doing so is "the billions in pesos of alleged arrears being charged the hundreds of thousands of public school teachers that are causing them difficulties in getting salary loans and other benefits due them."

The alleged arrears are caused by the much delayed posting by the GSIS of remittances and loan re-payments of members which are automatically deducted from the payroll of all government agencies.

A classic example would be the case of Jose Barrera de los Santos III who retired from the Sugar Regulatory Agency (SRA) on March 15, 2007 and who until now has not received his benefits. His retirement number is AK0010594..

Wrote his wife, Dr. Dory de los Santos (da_delossantos@yahoo.com), also with SRA:

"GSIS informed him that the benefits accrued to him is less than the combined total accountabilities resulting to zero claim. We requested for a recomputation of his benefits three times, May 23, August 1 and Sept. 14, 2007. We emphasized on the emergency loan of P7,500 granted on Jan. 12, 1996. SRA showed remittances starting April 25, 1996 until March 1998. However, GSIS Bacolod has no record of payments, thus his loan ballooned from P7,500 to P23,310.00. For a cash advance loan of P5,000 there was also no record of payments but SRA has remitted P2,833.35 until his retirement period so his loan remained P5,546.77 plus interests. The employee is always the one penalized with interests when it is GSIS having problems in their posting.

"Every week, our liaison officer visits GSIS to process and follow up his application and the usual reply to our query on the status of my husband's claim is ' Manila has not yet posted his loan payments'. It's been over a year and our request for claim sleeps in their office. The fact that SRA promptly remits our contributions monthly, the employees are subjected to injustices. We cannot just pay P23,310.18 for a loan of P7,500 which was already fully paid but which was not posted by GSIS. My husband is a low-salaried employee and to be advised to have zero claim when there are evidences showing prompt payments and remittances by our office, it's so disgusting."

***

The report that GSIS will handle the required third party liability insurance that every owner of the 5.5 million vehicles in the country gives me the heebie-jeebies.

I am not against the idea of having an integrated motor vehicle insurance scheme, but please not under the GSIS! With its track record? No, please!

Ms. Gloria Arroyo should know that the GSIS has not even been able to perform properly its main job as the guardian of the pension scheme of its 1.5 million members. To add to it the burden of handling an integrated motor vehicle insurance scheme would only make the situation worse.

Already, people are speculating as to the real reason the P3.5 billion business is being transferred to the GSIS. Is it an attempt to enable GSIS to somehow recover from financial losses due to alleged unauthorized expenses and investments allegedly gone sour? Speculation is rife that GSIS is insolvent.

By all means, the Arroyo regime should go ahead with the scheme, but not with GSIS handling it.

***

In the wake of criticisms from various quarters regarding his appointment as administrator of the Social Security System (SSS), former NEDA director general and incumbent CHED chair Romulo Neri blurted out: "I am qualified for SSS!"

No, you are not, Mr. Neri, not with your evident lack of moral courage and near-zero credibility and with your integrity rendered suspect following your enigmatic refusal to tell everything you know about the odious ZTE-NBN deal.

At the SSS, you will be entrusted with the future of nearly 30,000,000 stakeholders. Given your track record of concealing what is an obvious anomaly and your evident subservience to your boss whom you allegedly once characterized as "evil" and whose trust rating among the people is so low, do you think SSS members will be able to sleep soundly after you take over? No, Mr. Neri, you are not qualified!

Listen to what a reader has to say:

"First of all, I want to thank you for including part of my email in your column. Once again, I am writing to air my apprehensions, this time on SSS in which I am also a member. I worked for a private company before being employed in the government. Just last month I decided to continue paying my contributions to SSS as a voluntary member. What prompted me to do so is the fact that, as I said in my email, with the way things are going in GSIS (delayed postings of payments and remittances, the appearance and disappearance of funds, etc.), I can hardly see the light at the end of the tunnel.

"Now this dark realm begins to creep into SSS with the appearance of Romulo Neri. And now I am in a dilemma whether to continue paying my SSS contributions knowing that another political appointee who once gave the advice on "moderating their greed" and has a very strong "executive privilege" comes into the picture.

"I just hope my apprehensions are wrong for the sake of all the members of SSS. I just hope SSS will not end up in a huge mess just like GSIS."

***

Going back to the scandalous ZTE-NBN deal, why is the Supreme Court taking too long to decide on the motion for reconsideration (MR) filed by the Senate about two months ago? The MR is about the high tribunal's decision to uphold Romulo Neri's petition asking the Supreme Court to bar the Senate from asking three questions crucial to finding out the truth about the ZTE-NBN deal.

What is the Senate doing? Is it really serious about putting closure to the case?

In this connection, former House Speaker Jose de Venecia keeps announcing his intention to testify in the Senate regarding the ZTE-NBN deal and, in the same breath, saying that he needs more medical attention. Is he fishing for something? His credibility is going further south because of his dilly-dallying.

***

The news reports about former ambassador to the United Nations Lauro Baja Jr. being accused of allegedly having illegally recruited and maltreated a former household help brings to the fore once again something that I have advocated in the past.

Our ambassadors and consuls general assigned abroad should be provided with at least two government-paid household help. The job of an ambassador/consul general entails, among others, frequent entertaining of officials of the host government, colleagues in the diplomatic/consular corps, businessmen and visiting VIPs from home. As well, the ambassador's/consul general's residence requires constant care and maintenance to make it always presentable to guests for reasons of national prestige and all.

Except for a few posts where the government has acquired official residences and chanceries, our ambassadors and consuls general are expected to see to it that the official residences they lease are well-appointed. He is also expected to have all the necessary paraphernalia like furniture, décor, silverware, chinaware, etc. This alone takes a big chunk from his personal resources. And to saddle him further with the burden of hiring at his personal expense domestic helpers is really unfair. After all, he is in the country of his assignment not in his personal capacity but as the representative of the Philippines .

There is nothing new to this proposal. Ambassadors and consuls general of other countries which may be considered at par or even "poorer" than the Philippines do provide them with such help. Bangladesh for instance, and most, if not all, Asean countries. Governments of developed countries usually hire such people locally. We can and should do the same.

Needless to say, such domestic helpers must be trained well, at government expense, in their duties and responsibilities. They should be considered members of the embassy or consulate general staff.

***

Today is the 78th day of the second year of Jonas Burgos' disappearance.

Jonas is no longer just the symbol of the unfortunate victims of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. He is also fast becoming the symbol of "justice delayed, justice denied" in this crime, graft, and corruption-ridden land.