“This would end the reconciliation process and Caloocan could finally settle with the GSIS! In March, 2011, Caloocan submitted the first batch of 305 3mployees for uploading by the GSIS membership department.”
by Ducky Paredes
Call it unfair; or, maybe Mayor Enrique “Recom” Echiverri’s own predictions came true. After all, in defeating actor and former mayor Rey Malonzo in the election, Recom must have called him every awful adjective he could think of. Malonzo turned out to be even worse. He left a can of worms for the new mayor.
Barely a year into Recom’s election as Mayor in 2004, a collection letter from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) informed the new mayor that this was already the “Third Notice on Past Due Compulsory Premiums.” Ray Malonzo had not been remitting to the GSIS the premiums that the city had been deducting from its employees’ paychecks.
(Actually, this was not the only account that Malonzo had not serviced. Caloocan was also saddled with unpaid power bills from Meralco, unpaid telephone ills due Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) and unpaid water bills, among others.)
After paying for arrearages in the last three months of Malonzo’s term — P4,072,880.51 for March 2004 on March 2, 2006; P4.097,119.50 for April 2004 on April 5, 2006; and P4,138,175.00 for May 2004 on April 25, 2006 — as per GSIS, Caloocan still owed the government’s insurance provider P126,506,221.82!
The actual unpaid principal was only P15,290,171,12 (just about four months of actual unremitted collections)! What was killing Caloocan was the running interest that was due from previous accumulated unsettled accounts during Malonzo’s term!
To do what was right by Caloocan, Mayor Recom decided that the only way was to negotiate with the GSIS! He submitted a Request for Condonation of penalties, interests and other surcharges and another request for the amortization of what was due the GSIS.
From 2006, Caloocan and the GSIS have been in talks. Both discovered that their records — Caloocan’s and the GSIS’ — did not match. In a meeting at the GSIS offices with EVP Felicidad Gutierrez, Recom agreed that before any Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) could be signed, a reconciliation of records had to be worked out.
For instance, several Caloocan employees who had retired, resigned and even expired were still in the GSIS list and the City was still being dunned their premiums. This was found to be 634 persons for whom Caloocan was still being charged.
Thus in November 2006, the City Treasurer submitted the updated service records of city employees in order that reconciliation with the GSIS records could be done!
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A year later, in September 2007, GSIS informed Caloocan that the GSIS’ IBM computers broke down and all records submitted by Caloocan disappeared. (This was a big problem between the GSIS and IBM that we wrote about in previous columns. See http://www.duckyparedes.com/blogs/2009/05/27/gsis-vs-ibm-philippines/)
Another year later, in November 2010, Caloocan submitted to GSIS another list of 647 personnel no longer on city hall’s payroll who were still on GSIS’ collection list and for which the city was still being billed.
GSIS Senior Vice President Cecil Feleo informed Caloocan at that time that the GSIS system had also improved to the point that GSIS would provide the city a format under their new computer system, which would henceforth automatically compute the premium for each city employee.
So, finally, after all that, Caloocan could now update all of the service records or all employees from 1997 to 2010 and their records would automatically match those of the GSIS. This would end the reconciliation process and Caloocan could finally settle with the GSIS!
In March 2011, Caloocan submitted the first batch of 305 3mployees for uploading by the GSIS membership department.
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On July 7, 2011, after Recom started on his second term as Caloocan Mayor, Vice Mayor Egay Erice filed a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman seeking the preventive suspension of the mayor. The Ombudsman issued and order of suspension for the reason that “(t)o date, the respondents still failed and refused to remit the premium contributions of the employees of the Local Government of Caloocan City.”
That order was also implemented by the Department of Interior and Local Governments.
The status of this, at the moment, is that the Executive Judge of Caloocan RTC # 128 has taken cognizance of Mayor Recom’s Prayer for Declaratory Relief, which has been raffled and is presently being heard at the regional trial court level. In the meantime, the order for preventive suspension will have to wait until the Regional Trial Court is done with its hearings.
Who is Vice Mayor Egay Erice? He is a politician who ran for Mayor in 2004 and lost, for congressman n the 2nd District of Caloocan and lost. He was a virtual had-been who was given a chance to resurrect his political career when Recom invited him to run as Mayor Recom’s vice mayor in 2010.
Why has he turned against Recom? Obviously, he is preparing another run for mayor in 2013. If he can be sitting as mayor before the elections, he probably figures that he has a slim chance to make it and claim to have solved the GSIS problems of the city.
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For me, Mayor Recom must be doing well. Caloocan is among the few places in this country where one can apply for and/or renew a business permit on-line. Considering that I had to start at the rear of the line where I live for the same thing that one can do on-line in Caloocan, I do sometimes wish that I were living in a place where dealing with the LGU on-line is an accepted practice.
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hvp 01.18.12
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