Biz buzz: ‘The Ghost of Positions Past’

Newly appointed Social Security System vice chair, president and CEO Emmanuel Dooc—who used to head the Insurance Commission—may have to contend with the so-called “Ghost of Christmas Past” even as he assumes his new post at the state-administered pension fund.

That’s because he is now the subject of a graft complaint filed by Steel Corporation of the Philippines (SCP) headed by its chair and CEO Abeto Uy and the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption represented by Arsenio Evangelista.

According to Uy and Evangelista, the former chief of the Insurance Commission had acted in a manner that caused undue injury to SCP, including the government, either through manifest partiality, bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence as would make him liable under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

In their complaint, Uy and Evangelista asked the Ombudsman to sanction Dooc for acts that were allegedly contrary to laws and regulations; unreasonable, unfair, oppressive or discriminatory, and inconsistent with the general course of the Insurance Commission’s functions and otherwise irregular, immoral or devoid of justification.

According to the SCP side, their complaint filed with the Dooc-led Insurance Commission for imposition of sanctions upon the steel company’s insurers (because of alleged unfair settlement practices) remained pending seven years after the firm suffered a fire at its facility. (Note, of course, that some insurers originally expressed doubts as to the nature of the fire that hit SCP.)

SCP also requested for the names of the reinsurers of the policies issued to it but this was supposedly not acted upon by Dooc. Instead, he just required the insurance companies to comment on the SCP request. Uy and Evangelista maintained that the obligation to reinsure was required by the Insurance Code and it was the duty of Dooc as commissioner to see to it that this requirement was complied with.

Dooc was also the subject of a letter addressed to President Duterte by SCP’s Uy and was published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer as full-page advertisements last month. In the letter, the SCP asked the President to replace Dooc as Insurance Commission chief over the IC’s “seemingly cartelized transactions” and “unholy alliance” with banks and insurance companies.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has formed a team from the Department of Finance to investigate the allegations of SCP against Dooc, but the results of the investigation have not yet been made public.

The question now is… What really happened at IC when this issue was lodged before it? Did it view SCP’s insurance claims as valid? That’s what Biz Buzz will find out next. —DAXIM L. LUCAS

Christmas airport rush

With Christmas just around the corner, all eyes are again focused on the country’s premier airport and the Naia terminal complex. Thousands of holiday travelers and balikbayan are currently jostling for every available inch inside four terminals designed to handle only 35 million passengers a year, but currently handling close to 40-million.

Despite improvements in the last few months—including the noticeable easing of air traffic congestion—Naia still requires immediate intervention to make it serviceable and safe for millions of passengers and the airlines that use them.

With emergency powers finally taking shape in Congress, Filipinos can hopefully look forward to more airport infrastructure projects in the coming years. While planners at the Department of Transportation (DOTr) are eager to build a new international gateway away from the city center, it behooves upon Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade to order the immediate approval of proposals for much needed repairs and equipment upgrades in the existing terminals.

After all, proposed airport projects under the public-private partnership (PPP) scheme could take years, if not decades, before they could take off. In the meantime, Filipinos would have to grin and bear the current Naia terminals.

It may therefore help if the good folks at DOTr could have some sense of “Christmas rush” to ensure that all necessary improvements and repairs are done before casting their eyes on new greenfield projects. As they say, “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” —DAXIM L. LUCAS