Under the system, "members and pensioners just need to use any phone and call a GSIS hotline. Then, by simply following the simple set of instructions to be given by a voice prompt, members and pensioners can avail of GSIS services even while in the comfort of their own home or anywhere else."

The GSIS is to be commended for introducing the G-VAPS. Unfortunately, it still requires old-age pensioners to first enroll in the eCard Plus kiosks.

It therefore does not address the problem faced by hundreds, if not thousands, of old-age pensioners living in remote areas who are no longer physically able to register in the very few GSIS kiosks here and abroad as in the case of the following:

1. Ambassador Rodolfo Arizala, 78, (<rodolfarizala@mi.cl>) who resides in Santiago, Chile .

2. Ms. Soledad Parial, 98, (c/o Ruby Parial <ruby1010@yahoo.com>), who is terminally ill and confined to a nursing home in the US .

3. Floro H. Pimentel, 91, (c/o Myrna V. Pimentel <myrnavp@-ncc.gov.ph>), who lives in Australia .

4. Jack P. Smith, 87, (c/o Jack Smith Jr. <Jack.Smith@-lacity.org>) who is in the US .

5. The mother of one Roly Lira (<anditos22125@yahoo.com>) who, according to Roly, has not received her pension for some time.

What is GSIS doing or going to do about the cases of these pensioners and others like them? Play the game of attrition? Huwag naman sana .

***

Listen to what Ms. Agnes L. Guevara of Bongabong, Or. Mindoro has to say:

"Thank God I am not one of them. So far I still receive my SSS pension on a regular basis.

"I, however, sympathize with my friends who are GSIS pensioners. They are retired public school teachers whose pensions perhaps are not as much as an ambassador’s or that of a retired high ranking official. In other words they are people who had not had enough funds during their active years to invest in other future sources of income. They are public servants who now depend solely on their pension for their daily subsistence and especially medical needs.

"But, like many of GSIS’ victims, they have not received their pensions regularly. They have to travel too to a bank next town to check if their check has been received They have to travel and cross the seas to Batangas (we live in Mindoro ) for their e-card, etc. These people are ordinary people and have no other source of income. Some even are already sickly, they can hardly make a long trip.

"What does Winston Garcia who wallows in his posh office and enjoys other government-funded amenities – not to mention the huge salary he receives – plan to do about this predicament?

"Oversexed na ba mga government leaders? There’s a joke that a person who’s oversexed is ‘bingi’. Well, perhaps, our leaders have become one and, consequently, the other."

***

GSIS head Winston Garcia has accused the controlling stockholders of power distributor Meralco of lack of transparency and mismanagement. A clear case of the pot calling the kettle black.

I am not making any judgment at all on the beef of Garcia against Meralco, but he should first set right the GSIS house over which he presides.

Members’ gripes against GSIS do not involve non-payment of pensions alone. Some have already been mentioned in this space. Others will be made known in due course.

***

One of the 29 vice presidents of GSIS (it also has two executive vice presidents and 12 senior vice presidents) said that GSIS would seriously study any offer by the Lopez group to sell their Meralco shares.

And then what? Use GSIS funds to buy more Meralco shares? You can’t even pay the pensions of thousands of old-age pensioners! By golly!

***

In an editorial on the then impending retirement of General Hermogenes Esperon as AFP chief, Malaya had this to say:

"Our unsolicited advice? Make Esperon an ambassador. That, of course, is an insult to career foreign service officers, but they have already long been bearing without complaint the burden of Gloria’s packing of overseas missions with political appointees."

A member of the Commission on Appointments (CA) announced last week that the CA is ready to hear and decide on the nominations of, among others, three ambassadors-designate, namely, Francisco Benedicto to India, Cristina Ponce-Enrile to Vatican and Noe Wong to Cambodia. All three are political appointees.

Will the career Foreign Service Officer corps complain to the CA this time?

Section 3, Article VI of the Rules of the Standing Committees of the CA states:

"Section 3. Oppositions or Complaints. No opposition or complaint filed by a non-member of the Commission to a nomination or appointment shall be considered by the Committee unless it be in writing, under oath and presented to it before the said committee has made its final recommendation. The oppositor or complainant shall be duly notified of the date when his opposition or complaint will be considered. (As amended on 04 Oct., 1995)"

If the career officers in the DFA are serious about wanting to do something about the ongoing "prostitution" by the Arroyo regime of the Foreign Service, they should resort to bringing their complaint to the CA under that rule. It would be interesting to see how CA members will react to a valid and legitimate complaint.

***

There she goes again, shooting her mouth off.

"Iyang Meralco na ‘yan, dapat pasabugin ‘yan. (That Meralco should be blown up to smithereens.) Such irresponsible utterance and so unbecoming of a senator of the Republic and aspiring member of the International Court of Justice.

Yes, Maria (Clara), I am referring to the inimitable and irrepressible Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

***

PNP chief Avelino Razon has been pigheadedly refusing the request of Pampanga Gov. Eddie "Among Ed" Panlilio to have Senior Supt. Cesar Hawthorne Binag assigned as the next provincial police director in Pampanga.

Among Ed has already made the request to Razon four times. Four times, Razon said no. The last time, Razon even sent an emissary to dissuade Among Ed from insisting on Binag.

In a letter to Razon in November last year, Panlilio said:

"You are well aware that our province has for years been known as a subservient host to jueteng. In view of that, we need morally upright men and women in the police force, the government and civil society to fight against and repulse the evils brought about by jueteng,

"It is in this regard that I am choosing someone who is morally and ethically right, whose career is unblemished by the slightest accusation of impropriety, and who has strong spiritual foothold on what is right."

Does not Razon want to eradicate jueteng in Pampanga, indeed all over the country? I recall having read in the papers that the wife of the alleged jueteng lord in that province and who ran against Among Ed in the last gubernatorial election is reportedly a comadre of Ms. Arroyo. Draw your own conclusion.

***

Today is the 15th day of the second year of Jonas Burgos’ disappearance.

If Ms. Arroyo is really serious about solving the hundreds of cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances during her watch, she should consider attending one of the meetings of a group called Desaparecidos. It is a group composed of mothers and closest kin of individuals who have inexplicably disappeared. It meets every third Saturday of the month. Ms. Arroyo might find it an enlightening and chastening experience.