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WINSTON
Garcia is no doubt every consumer’s idol today despite
his frustrated bid to wrest control of the management of
Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) from the Lopezes. Every
consumer in the franchise areas served by Meralco should
heap praises on this Cebuano for his untiring efforts in
taking on the Lopezes whose management, as Rene June
Mendez wrote the editor of this paper, is “inefficient
and covetous.”
While
Mendez was correct in suggesting that I failed to
appreciate Garcia by not siding with the Government
Service Insurance System’s (GSIS) president, general
manager and vice chairman of the board of trustees, he
missed the point or points I raised when I wrote the
facts about the paper losses incurred by the GSIS as a
stockholder owning 245.819 million shares, or 22.051
percent. These paper losses were computed based on facts
culled from the results of trading on the Philippine
Stock Exchange.
For
decades, I have been writing about the stock market and
about the fundamentals that bring prices up or down; I
write about the big stockholders and company insiders
when they either buy or sell but based only on available
documents disclosed by listed companies and which are
posted on the PSE web site. But I don’t write about
consumerism because it is a topic or subject that I feel
is better left to others who are in better position to
write about it.
As a
matter of fact, I simply wrote about the GSIS’s paper
losses on its Meralco holdings; I did not even suggest
that the administrators of the contributions of 1.4
million government workers should have sold some Meralco
shares at high and bought them back at low. This, by the
way, is one of the simplest rules that perhaps could be
found in all books on stock-investing strategies.
Another one is, when blood spills on the street, it’s
time to buy.
Mendez
might be wondering why it took me this long before I
responded to his letter, “Off the mark,” which appeared
on May 30, 2008. I have only one reason: Before taking
up his letter, I wanted to learn first how and what a
GSIS member feels when he feels cheated and how the GSIS—under
Garcia—has been efficiently serving its 1.4 million
members working for various government entities.
Just
recently, I learned how a GSIS member would feel when he
or she is ignored. Seeing a document a man ahead of me
was holding, I inquired what it was and was told that
his optional insurance has already matured. Pointing to
him a poster nearby that advises GSIS members like him
to file a complaint, he said he has been doing that
since after claiming the proceeds of his optional
insurance, which matured in August 2007. He said he has
been commuting from a far-flung province hoping to get
his check for P46,000. (The face value of his insurance
was P50,000. He could not understand the reduction). I
don’t know what happened to him that day.
But he
must have already spent a lot for transportation and
meals in going back and forth to GSIS in a period of 10
months. Hopefully, his expenses in following up his
optional insurance would not eat up the entire proceeds
of his insurance, which should otherwise go to his
family.
Perhaps,
Mendez could do a great service to GSIS members if only
he would also suggest how to improve the agency’s
services.
Garcia
may be well-loved by GSIS’s employees but not
necessarily by the majority of its members who pay
religiously their amortizations but could not get an
update of their payments.
Is it
true that when one pays today, his or her payments would
be posted in the ledger six months from now? Is also
true that some government agencies pay consultants only
to update the GSIS’s records of their employees? (esdperez@yahoo.com) |
