For telling the
truth and making the people informed, they get punished.

First it was
NBN-ZTE scam whistle-blower  Rodolfo
“Jun” Lozada, after spilling the beans on the bribery and corruption involving
top government officials, Lozada is jailed for perjury. Lt. Nancy Gadian of the
Philippine Navy who blew the whistle on alleged irregular use of RP-US
Balikatan funds in 2007 is in hiding because of a warrant of arrest and
surveillance.

And then there’s
Ms. Che-che Lazaro of Probe Productions who had to post bail after being
charged under the Anti-Wiretapping law. And Ms. Lazaro’s only fault was for
just doing her job and a good one at that.

The Confederation
for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE) and
its more than 300,000 members nationwide, the fund owners and the pensioners of
the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), would like to express our
all-out support for Ms.Lazaro who’s facing an incredulous wiretapping case. For
us, this is plain and simple harassment meant to silence, albeit failing
miserably, all those who take up the cudgels for the GSIS fund owners. 

Ms. Lazaro’s case
filed by GSIS Vice President for Public Relations, Ella Valencerina, is similar
to other cases filed by the GSIS against individuals and groups exposing the pension
fund’s many policies that is inimical to its members. Like Ms. Lazaro,
COURAGE’s National President also had to post bail in September 2008 for a
libel case filed by GSIS President Winston Garcia at the Pasay RTC. The same
libel case was dismissed by the Department of Justice in 2006. But in a sudden
twist of events, the DOJ reversed itself in 2008 and recommended the filing of
libel against Gaite. Fomer GSIS employees and media practitioners also got
several counts of libel last year courtesy of Garcia. 

Probe’s feature on
“Perwisyong Benepisyo” clearly demonstrated the agonies of the public school
teachers who had been consistently giving-up a part of their salaries monthly
for their future retirement only to find out that they won’t be receiving what
they’re expecting because their employer (the government) has defaulted on
paying their share. In fact, the teachers are not the only ones who felt they
were robbed of the retirement pay due them. Government employees from various
agencies including those from the Local Government Units and Water Districts
nationwide have been having nightmares that they would end up short on
retirement. All because of a policy created by the GSIS Board of Trustees which
effectively changed the definition of length of service into “creditable years
of service” or years based on premiums paid.

The GSIS officials
should have a more open-minded stance when it comes to the employees’
complaints, queries and criticisms. After all, they are the real owners of the
multi-billion peso fund entrusted to these officials. It’s about time the
Garcia, Valencerina and the rest of the GSIS officials should stop acting as if
they’re untouchables, they’re first and foremost public officials accountable
to the public.