Government execs with fat salaries should be fired, solon says

A Lakas congressman urged President Arroyo yesterday to fire top officials of government corporations who have obviously defied her order to cut their salaries and other perks.

"She should kick them out of their cushy posts," said Rep. Juan Miguel Zubiri (Lakas, Bukidnon).

Opposition Rep. Abraham Mitra (LDP, Palawan) supported Zubiri’s call.

"Only one fate should await those who did not implement the President’s order to bring down their salaries and allowances to reasonable levels, and that is separation from the service," said Mitra.

He said executives of state corporations "owe their jobs not to their brains but to the appointing power and their backers."

In calling for the sacking of "defiant and insensitive" corporate bureaucrats, Zubiri said Mrs. Arroyo, shortly after assuming the presidency in January last year, was scandalized to learn that these executives were receiving huge amounts in pay and allowances.

He said the President learned that many officials of the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System were getting as much as P350,000 a month in basic salary alone.

"That is seven times the President’s monthly salary," he said.

The Mindanao congressman noted that at one time, Mrs. Arroyo publicly rebuked GSIS chairman Winston Garcia for saying it would be difficult to reduce GSIS and SSS salaries.

"There was sign of defiance from the start. The President should not give them more time to defy her order," he said.

Zubiri said that it is the height of insensitivity on the part of these corporate executives to resist a pay cut at a time when the entire government is cash-strapped and has in fact incurred a huge budget deficit.

"It is even more scandalous if we consider that government and private sector workers who are members of GSIS and SSS are given a hard time obtaining benefits, and salary, calamity and other loans," he said.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. assured the public yesterday that it is part of its policy to be prudent in the management of health insurance funds.

"PhilHealth has already submitted the Pay Rationalization Plan of its officers and employees to the Department of Budget and Management in compliance to Memorandum Order No. 20 issued by President Arroyo," Linda Laureta, manager of PhilHealth’s corporate communications office, said in a letter to The STAR.

"Internally, we have also instituted belt-tightening measures including forced savings of at least five percent per budget item in our Corporate Operating Budget this year," she added.

PhilHealth stressed that the compensation packages of its executives are not excessive. – Jess Diaz