Final tribute to Social Security Commissioner Arthur Amansec

In the words of Ralph Ellison, the great black novelist who wrote “The Invisible Man,”: “(Y)ou have to leave home to find home.”

Today you left your family and SSS to join your final abode and resting place, my dear Commissioner Art Amansec. A home where there is no hatred but love, no intrigues but straight talk, no deception but honesty, no hidden agenda but total transparency, and no lies but truth.

Abraham Lincoln once aptly said: “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count, it’s the life in those years.” You definitely lived a full life, Art. I’m sure where you are now, you can look back with pride to what you had achieved – a colorful career as a respected Labor Arbiter, an accomplished lawyer, an uncompromising Commissioner of SSS and a successful family man.

On a personal note, you were not just my colleague in the Commission. You were my true compañero – a friend and a fellow lawyer, a school mate, and a fraternal Brother of the first order in Lex Talionis Fraternitas. My dear Brother, first, you are a Bedan, secondly, a Talionis, but as a friend of Filipino workers, you are second to none. When you are summoned to heaven, you will answer to these calls with great honor and pride and they will be your’ passport thru the pearly gates.

I am fortunate to have you as my colleague in Commission during my watch. You have brought honor to your Office and not the other way around.

Art could be hard headed, independent-minded and he did not mind taking a solitary position and march to the beat of his own drum. In notable deliberations of sees beyond the short term, beyond the urgent, and takes action with a view towards lasting values.

In short,’ Art was not the “Social” aspect but the “Security” side of SSS.

In depth of our sorrow, let’s find meaning in his death. Let’s channel our grief into purpose and emulate Art’s dream of protecting SSS funds against profligate use. We can truly honor Art if something good emerges from his death and we who love him find “some kind of gift in goodbye.”

Tol, your passing is like switching off the lighting in this bright hall. Even if you turn it on, this hall will not have the same luster and glow as before.

You may not have a charcoal portrait hang outside this hall reserved for all former Chairmen of the SSC and PCEOs of the SSS but the image shall be forever etched in the hearts of the countless members whom you have helped and protected.

The words “You will be missed” is completely inadequate.

Note: SS Commissioner Arthur Amansec represented the Labor Sector. He passed away last January 7, 2019.— Emmanuel F. Dooc SSS President and Chief Executive Officer