SSS president urged: Inhibit from stocks scam probe
Social Security System commissioner Jose Gabriel La Viña is urging SSS president and chief executive officer Emmanuel Dooc to inhibit himself from the investigation into a stock trading anomaly involving four top executives of the pension fund.
“I would not tell him what to do, but perhaps he should think if he could not look at this case objectively. Because maybe there’s an emotional closeness as these are management people that work with him. Maybe he should think about inhibiting also,” La Viña said in an interview yesterday with CNN Philippines.
La Viña made the suggestion after Dooc appeared in an earlier interview with a different television network, where he said the SSS president appeared to be lawyering for the four accused.
“I am not lawyering for anyone, definitely not for the SSS officials complained of,” Dooc said when asked to comment on La Viña’s statement.
“If at all, I’m an advocate of truth and justice. We have a process that applies to administrative cases in the civil service. We assure everyone that we will seriously look into this and ferret out the truth to establish the guilt or innocence of the parties concerned and accord due process to all,” Dooc said in a text message to The STAR.
According to La Viña, eight members of the Social Security Commission (SSC), the policymaking body of the SSS, are investigating the alleged questionable stock transactions of some top officials. He said he has inhibited himself from the probe.
La Viña extended the same suggestion to his fellow commissioners, saying they should also consider inhibiting themselves from the investigation if “they have ties with the entities involved, and if they cannot also be objective.”
He filed an administrative complaint against SSS executive vice president Rizaldy Capulong, equities investment division chief Reginald Candelaria and equities product development head Ernesto Francisco Jr. for allegedly trading stocks using information acquired from an SSS-accredited stockbroker.
SSS chief actuary George Ongkeko Jr. was also named in the complaint for allegedly neglecting his duties and failing to provide records of the others’ business transactions.
Candelaria and Ongkeko had reportedly filed their resignation, but only the former’s was approved by the SSC as the latter still has pending duties to perform.
The other two officials were put on “floating status” and reassigned to the office of the SSS president.
La Viña said he did not agree with the reassignments.
Meanwhile, the commissioner also hinted that there are other cases of alleged profiteering within the SSS management that has yet to be made public.
“This is only the first case I filed. I have knowledge beyond this administrative case of other things that have been reported to me, other things that have been alleged. So the picture I’m seeing is bigger than the picture you’re seeing at this moment,” La Viña said.
“I also know – this is still an allegation at this point – that they did not declare everything they bought and sold,” he added.