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Storm Over But Not the Heat at SSS

It’s not all quiet at the Social Security System’s (SSS) head and branch offices even as Malacañang last week caved in to the demands of thousands of employees and executives to ease out their controversial president, Vitaliano Nañagas II. They who struggled for 74 days to win one of their demands – Nañagas’ ouster – are now pondering their moves for the next battle – Malacañang’s move to push its privatization plan for SSS. That will surely heat up the unrest at the SSS, if not now in the next few months, as militant groups who have supported the employees’ campaign gear up for the next confrontation.

BY BULATLAT.COM

It took 74 days ending with a paralyzing nationwide strike by thousands of employees of the Social Security System (SSS) before Malacañang finally gave in to their demand to kick out their president, Vitaliano Nañagas II last Thursday (Manila time).

Nañagas’ replacement by Corazon dela Paz, former head of the global accounting firm Price Waterhouse Coopers, ended the worst crisis that ever wracked the four-decade old pension fund.

Although the striking employees were jubilant over their victory, they believe their struggle is not over.

Paul Mijares, vice president for internal affairs of the Alert and Concerned Employees for Better SSS (Access), said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had only solved "one-fourth" of the problem at SSS when she replaced Nañagas. (Nañagas incidentally has been merely reassigned to head the Development Bank of the Philippines, another quasi-government corporation.)

"The bigger issue here is the privatization of SSS,” Mijares said shortly after Malacañang announced its decision. “Our actions over the past two months that culminated in the ouster of Nañagas should send a strong signal to Malacañang that we will not take the privatization issue lightly."

Mijares said that had the President acted swiftly on the demands of the employees, their protest should not have gone this far.

SSS employees and executives had cried foul over Nañagas’ mismanagement and strong-arm tactics. Before taking over the SSS, Nañagas had been booted out of the Securities and Exchange Commission over similar grievances.

Pandemonium

Malacañang’s announcement was greeted by pandemonium. Shouts of victory filled the air as teary-eyed employees and top executives clapped and hugged each other – proud of their victory in the fight they had begun two months ago.

Operations at the SSS head office in Quezon City started to normalize at 1 p.m. on Thursday, after the protesters held a thanksgiving mass for their victory. They held an uproarious victory party Friday night and reported for overtime work Saturday.

Although militant groups who supported the protesting employees welcomed Malacañang's move they warned of bigger protests if the Arroyo government continued to push the privatization of SSS and other government institutions.

Even as striking employees face the grim possibility of dismissal from service, Ferdinand Gaite, president of the Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage), said other state employees would not think twice in launching similar protest actions if the government refuses to abandon its privatization scheme.

Under the law, state employees are not allowed to go on strike. Penalty ranges between suspension to outright dismissal from office.

"Unless the government addresses the issue of privatization squarely, it can expect bigger protest actions from government employees," Gaite said.

Destabilizer

Debunking claims that the striking SSS employees could have been unwittingly used by the opposition, Gaite said the principal destabilizer of the Arroyo government is its inability to address basic problems like poverty, joblessness and corruption.

The Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, meanwhile, agreed that Nañagas' removal from his post did not really put an end to the problems at the pension fund.

"We hope this is not just damage control by Malacañang because we heard that De la Paz is very close to Nañagas and so we cannot expect that her administration will not carry on what Nañagas had started," Bayan secretary general Teodoro Casiño said.

Kilusang Mayo Uno agreed, saying that while Malacañang removed Nañagas it failed to say categorically whether it would, once and for all, dump its plan to privatize the pension fund.

"It is expected that whoever is the government's choice to replace Nañagas will abide with the prescriptions of privatization and impositions of foreign multilateral financial agencies like IMF-World Bank and Asian Development Bank," KMU spokesperson Sammy Malunes said.

‘Reforms’

Bayan spokesperson Renato Reyes said Nañagas' ouster should serve as warning to "those who would peddle the agency to fund managers eyeing the P180-billion workers' pension fund."

"The so-called reforms sought by Nañagas like outsourcing and joint ventures are actually initial steps at privatizing the SSS. President Arroyo should stop such schemes," Reyes said.

With Nañagas out of SSS, he said employees and people's organizations should now shift their focus on "improving SSS services as a worker-funded institution" by taking concrete steps in cutting down corruption and the criminal use of SSS funds for private ends.

"Nañagas' ouster is a good opportunity to start a serious probe of corrupt practices besetting the SSS, most especially the complicity of certain officials in allowing the use of SSS funds to save ailing companies of presidential cronies and various favored projects of previous administrations," Reyes said.

Foreign monopolists

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, on the other hand, said the victory of SSS workers should serve as a reminder to the Arroyo government that any attempt "to sell the national public interest to foreign monopolists would ignite more walk-outs and paralysis of government entities."

"The imminent threat of privatization still lurks ahead due to the Arroyo government's hell-bent subservience to the structural adjustment program of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank that includes the full-blown privatization, liberalization, deregulation of the national economy," said KMP chair Rafael Mariano.

The peasant group called on the Filipino people to be more vigilant in thwarting any setbacks that would demolish the unity and victories of the SSS employees struggle.

Bayan Muna representative-elect Satur Ocampo on the other hand said that while Malacañang and even Nañagas denied pushing the SSS’ privatization plan, the government is bent on pursuing it more likely in another form as it had already made a commitment to the World Bank-International Monetary.

Agent of privatization

Describing Nañagas as the "leading agent of privatization" in SSS, Bayan's Casiño said it was imperative that the former be booted out of office.

"The SSS issue in not just between SSS employees and Nañagas but a public interest issue that should be given a closer look," he said.

KMP's Mariano suggested that to put the privatization issue to an end, the Arroyo government should be placed under oath.

"There must be a black and white agreement that Malacañang will shoot down the privatization of SSS and it would not send thousands of rank-and-file employees out of their jobs. We cannot take their word at face value," Mariano asserted.

Pamalakaya chair Rodolfo Sambajon said the government is obsessed and hooked to sell SSS to their corporate clients at the expense of 23 million members of social security system.

He said that SSS, being a P180 billion institution, has enticed "foreign vultures and interlocking directorates of corporate greed."

"SSS is not for sale as general sentiment so dictates. Arroyo and her cesspool of crooked officials should stop endorsing a national sell-out. This is super-betrayal of public trust, " KMP and Pamalakaya said in a joint statement. Bulatlat.com

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