MORE BAD PUBLICTY FOR THE COUNTRY

As the days go by with no end in sight to the incompetence of Winston Garcia, the GSIS failed eCard program continues to generate bad publicity for the state pension fund -- and by extension to the image of the homeland in the United States.

Last evening's newscast of Balitang America, for instance, carried the sad stories of different pensioners in the United States who continue to encounter problems with the eCard.

The pensioners are paying for the half-assed implementation of this program conceived and thoughtlessly executed by Winston Garcia. Pensioners who enrolled in the eCard program in March are either still waiting for their cards to arrive in the mail or if they have already received them are left with cards that do not work.

That they are being made to suffer the consequences of GSIS's utter incompetence is totally incomprehensible.

Garcia's eCard is a vile and silent assault on the pensioners' welfare.

IT'S TIME FOR GARCIA THE BOZO TO GO!

DECONSTRUCTING GSIS' RESPONSE

If you read the attached GSIS response to complaints against the eCard, it is plain to see how they are totally out of touch with reality.

With all due respect, Ms. Enriqueta P. Disuanco, GSIS executive VP for operations, try as she might, has really nothing substantial to say about the total meltdown of this ill-conceived plan that collectively punishes pensioners in order to rid the system of scammers.

The GSIS' response to the New York City enrollment disaster was to send more people, at the pension fund's expense, to the United States on what amounts to a junket. And have they really improved their processes? The answer to that is a long list of the same complaints from pensioners, some of which you may read for yourself through the links we have provided when you scroll down this blog.

Technology is supposed to make people's lives better. By this measure, the eCard program is a totally scatological product of Winston Garcia's mind that he has imposed on the pensioners without any thought of its harsh effects on the ailing and elderly pensioners.

The eCard's stated goal is to make it easier for people to receive their pension checks but the opposite is happening. Pensioners are being made to jump through hoops to obtain the excretable eCard. And once they do finally get it, they are left with a card that not all banks in the Philippines would honor.

By making it extremely difficult to obtain their pension, is the real GSIS agenda here to make people give up in the face of the enormous bureaucratic red tape that Garcia has set up so that their pension would help line up the pockets of some corrupt politicians and petty bureaucratic tyrants?

The eCard requires pensioners to make a yearly trip to the kiosks, a heavy financial and physical burden on their part, to prove that they are still alive. Even the most tecnologically advanced country in the world, which is the United States, has not experimented on its pensioners in this inhumane manner. And the reason for this is obvious: pensioners' money cannot be witheld for such a prolonged period of time as the GSIS has done because pension is money already earned by a lifetime of service to the nation.

It is sacred money that they had won through blood, sweat and tears. No one in his right mind should tinker with it for any reason --- as Garcia has so blightly taken liberty with doing.

But Garcia is totally oblivious to these fine points that separate decent humanity from their relatives residing at the Manila Zoo.

FINALLY, A RESPONSE FROM GSIS. BUT WAIT, WHERE IN THE WORLD IS WINSTON GARCIA?

Tim Ramos, one of our blog correspondents, has received a response from one of Winston Garcia's subalterns. Sorta. The response acknowledges that there are problems with the eCard, but it touches only on the fiasco that occurred last March 9 at the Philippine Consulate General in New York.

It remains silent on what the GSIS intends to do to pensioners in terms of renumerating them for the gross injustice that the agency has done to them: namely, witholding their pension for months on end, and in some cases in the Philippines starving those people who depend solely on their pension to survive in their old age.

The letter to Tim Ramos, sent by the VP for operations of the GSIS, does not address the fundamental issue of the disaster-prone eCard system --- which is to say that Garcia must be held accountable for this ill-conceived program that has collectively punished pensioners as he pursues his fantasy of "catapulting" the Philippines on top of the IT totem pole.

It must be noted that throughout this entire ugly episode, Garcia himself has remained silent, as though he is above and beyond the despicable situation that he himself has created.

Courtesy dictates that he should himself answer the valid issues raised against his leadership. But it seems to us that he looks down on these complaints with disdain, as though serving his constituency is beneath him.

Tim Ramos, writing to the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila, which prompted the GSIS response, has this to say:

"Thank you for following up on my complaints. While I appreciate your efforts, I am totally disappointed with Mr. Winston Garcia who remains silent throughout this episode and has chosen to use his subalterns to respond to the valid complaints against his incompetent leadership.

"His continued stint in office despite the many complaints against his failure of leadership only deepens the suspicion that the Philippines rewards incompetence. The eCard, despite what the GSIS says, is not doing the pensioners any good.

"Mr. Garcia is the number one reason why the Philippines' image is so bruised before the eyes of pensioners in the United States and those of their friends and relatives. With Garcia around and doing damage to your efforts to project a good image for the country, you might as well kiss goodbye to WOW Philippines."

STILL WAITING FOR THE ECARD

The horror show that is the GSIS under petty bureaucratic tyrant Winston Garcia is unending.

My dad was finally processed for his eCard at the self-serve kiosk at the Philippine Consulate. But wait. Now he is being told that he has to wait for close to two months before he could lay his hands on the eCard. Not only that, he won't be able to start using it unless he again shows up at the Consulate to have it validated.

And since his birthday will be in August, he has to show up -- yet again -- during his birth month to prove that he is still alive.

What kind of idiotic system is that which punishes pensioners with unnecessary trips to the Consulate, wasting pensioners' time and money getting snarled in New York City traffic just to satisfy Garcia's delusional requirement?

The eCard is definitely not a user-friendly system. And if Garcia has half a pea's brain, he should start thinking of a better way to do this thing.

The sad thing is that getting the eCard is only half the trouble. The greatest hurdle still to come remains: will it ever work, judging on a string of complaints heard from pensioners in places like Iloilo who have said that a lot of banks don't even honor the card?

STILL NO CALL FROM THE CONSULATE

On March 9, pensioners waited for an eternity to obtain their eCard at the Philippine Consulate in New York. But because the eCard was (is) not ready for prime time, many of the pensioners were told to come back another time and register through the self-serve kiosks.

As unacceptable as that proposal may be considering that they had to rearrange their schedule on pain that they would lose their pension if they did not make it, they decided to heed the advice of the Consul General. And the advice was for them to just come back another time as soon as the kiosk was set up "in two weeks."

Well, it has been almost two months, and each time my father calls the Consulate, he gets the same excuse: just be patient because the GSIS biometric machine is not yet working.

In the meantime, his pension sits in the bank.

Now, the big question becomes: Is Winston Garcia giving pensioners the interest their money has accrued during the period of time that Garcia has deprived them of their pension?

PAGING GARCIA!!! BUT IS HE LISTENING?

Th correspondence office at Malacanang has written a referral letter to Winston Garcia asking him to comment on the complaints of Tim Ramos, one of our blog correspondents, regarding the mistreatment of pensioners in New York City last March 9.

But we can bet our bottom dollar that this letter will go unanswered, just as a similar letter from the chief of staff of Sen. Mar Roxas has been rudely ignored by Garcia up to this day.

After all, the letter-writer is just a mere functionary at the office of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

As far as Garcia is concerned, letters from sources other than the appointing power herself do not count. If he can play dumb about the plight of pensioners who are ailing and elderly and are being deprived of their pension because of his arrogant management style, why should he care about such a "nuisance"?

His continued lack of concern IS ONE MORE COMPELLING REASON WHY IT'S TIME FOR THIS BOZO TO GO!

GARCIA IS COLLECTIVELY PUNISHING PENSIONERS

The failed eCard program that Winston Garcia is implementing with no regard for its bad consequence amounts to nothing but collective punishment. And the aggrieved party in this case is the elderly and mostly ailing government pensioners.

In order to prevent scammers from continuing to collect the pension checks of dead relatives, he has embarked on the eCard program that is intended to stop the fradulent practice.

And we have no quarrel with that, except that the new technology that he promotes is not working. Let's admit for the sake of argument that the ailing pension system was fraught with loopholes that scammers could exploit, but what's incredible is that the cure that Garcia has prescribed for the disease is worse than the symptoms.

The result, of course, is total chaos and disaster. The pensioners have stopped getting their pension for months, and some press reports indicate that there are cases of those not receiving theirs for up to a year.

Being a lawyer, Garcia should know that collectively punishing a group of people for some rotten apples in their midst is against the grain of civilized society. Only the Nazis and some incorrigible dictators in history have done that, like Joseph Stalin, a former Catholic seminarian like Garcia.

For collectively punishing the pensioners in pursuit of his twisted dream to supposedly catapult the Philippines atop the "IT totem pole" is immoral.

When you put pensioners' welfare at risk in a unilateral manner, as Garcia has done in this case, you cross the line. No one has the right to tinker with the elderly's life in any way, shape or form. They have served their country loyally and well and they deserve nothing but the best service that the government can offer in their twilight years.

And, by the way, it's not true that only the Philipines, as he claims, is using some sort of eCard. The U.S. Food Stamps program has been using this system for years. But the huge difference is that their card works. Beneficiaries show up at the Welfare office, are given the card in no time, and start using it seamlessly on their next visit to the supermarket.

The operative word here is seamless, none of the hassles and aggravation that Garcia's foolhardy project has created. And none of his lame excuses either.

IT'S TIME FOR GARCIA TO GO!

GARCIA: GSIS' GREATEST NON-PERFORMING (ASS)et

Winston Garcia is not without his defenders. Paid hacks and apologists abound in his backyard to do his bidding to cloud valid issues raised against his inept leadership rather than address them.

Winston Garcia's ill-conceived eCard is destroying pensioners' lives in the Philippines. Instead of easing the burden of pensioners in their twilight years, he is adding on to it with his failed eCard program.

The result has been financially disastrous to them and their family whose budget --nay, to many their very survival -- hinges upon their measly monthly pension.

We totally agree with the sentiment of his paid hacks: Garcia is the biggest (what is the appropriate word to use --FATTEST?) non-performing ASS(et) of the Macapagal Arroyo fake government. No one, absolutely no one, can argue with that.

He occupies so much space at the GSIS building for doing nothing.

IT'S TIME TO THROW THIS BOZO OUT.

THE PROBLEM WITH GARCIA

The problem with Winston Garcia is that he apparently fancies himself to be such a lover of fine arts that he took the liberty of spending pensioners' money on a painting whose questionable value does nothing to add to the pension fund.

His skewed priority does not end there. He issues ghost-written press releases (nonsense drivel, really, because they do not reflect reality -- remember his wild and delusional claim about putting the Philippines on top of the IT totem pole with his failed eCard?) about his supposed great performance at the GSIS and is now starting to believe them.

It was Winston Churchill who said: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” Thankfully, we are now in the digital age, and whatever BIG lies Garcia foists upon an unsuspecting public won't stand.

He claims he has performed well on the job, but the long list of complaints against his failure of leadership says otherwise. Scroll down to the end of this blog, and you will see for yourself how he is screwing the pensioners BIG time while claiming he is good for the agency.

Good for what? For fattening himself at the expense of the pensioners with his excretable eCard?

It is time for this petty tyrant to RESIGN. Macapagal Arroyo should kick his fat ass off that manager's swivel chair.

The pensioners do not deserve this inept and incompetent political lackey.

BEWARE OF GARCIA'S PAID MEDIA HACKS

A columnist in a Manila newspaper is parroting Winston Garcia's line that the problem with Garcia's harebrained idea (i.e., the failed eCard) is not the unilateral and Gestapo-like implementation of this program but the people's "resistance" to new technology.

But repeating such a skewed and stupid screed just won't fly, and it leaves us wondering how much government money is Garcia spending to get a good press.

Who do they think they're kidding?

How about simply admitting for once, Mr. Garcia, that what this all boils down to is your failure of leadership. In short, it's your incompetence, stupid, that's causing all the problems associated with the eCard.

Your asking people to personally enroll at the consulates in LA, San Francisco, New York and Chicago last March only to be told to come back another time after rearranging their lives just to be there was unconscionable.

They showed up after being implicitly told that their appearance was needed, or else they would lose their pension, only to be confronted with biometric machines that did not work.

The pensioners are all for keeping their pension safe from scammers (some of whom are GSIS employees themselves who extracted a slice of the pension check before releasing it, according to some pensioners) but they won't stand for incompetence in its implementation.

IT'S TIME FOR WINSTON GARCIA TO GO!

CALIFORNIA PENSIONER STILL WAITING FOR HER eCARD

Something's definitely fishy with the eCard.

My mom has just received a phone call from her sister-in-law in Anaheim, California. Tita Virgie, who was patient enough to wait for her turn at the Philippine Consulate in LA to be fingerprinted, has still to receive her eCard. It's been over a month since she enrolled in the program.

She was told she would get the eCard in the mail in three weeks.

Now the question must be asked: why are pensioners not getting what is due them in a timely fashion?

Is the delay in the release of their pension a scheme to use their money elsewhere in the meantime? Like funding the election bid of the administration's senatorial bets?

Just asking.

GARCIA IS DISRESPECTFUL

Almost a month after the office of Sen. Mar Roxas had sent Winston Garcia a referral letter concerning the complaints of Tim Ramos, this petty bureaucratic tyrant has deemed not to respond.

His continuing silence shows how he disrespects valid grievances against his department. Or it can also mean that he is guilty as charged.

Which is which Winston Garcia?

PETTY TYRANT AT GSIS TORMENTING PENSIONERS

(Charlie Chaplin in "The Great Dictator")

Reading the sad story in the link hidden in the headline of this piece (yes, you have to click on the headline of this post to reveal the story) manifests the lack of heart exhibited by a petty tyrant in the person of Winston Garcia. The response of his people to the valid complaints of the pensioners is similar to the craven and arrogant attitude of the crittens he sent to New York City to enroll pensioners there.

How this man is able to cling to power, torment pensioners and bring them closer to death in frustration over his inhumane policies is beyond me!

What kind of blackmail does he possess against Macapagal Arroyo that he is able to hold onto power as chairman and president of GSIS?

WAITING FOR GARCIA

(At right is Sen. Mar Roxas. Photo courtesy MarRoxas.com)

Sen. Mar Roxas has written Mr. Winston Garcia a referral letter to address the complaints aired by Tim Ramos of New Jersey.

The letter was sent by Ms. Susan Ople -- Senator Roxas' chief of staff -- last March 15.

Tim Ramos is waiting what kind of response, if any, he would get from Mr. Garcia.

So far, it has been nothing but dead silence.

GARCIA'S TRIP TO SF TOTAL WASTE OF GSIS MONEY

(At left is Winston Garcia preening before the camera in San Francisco at the launch of the disastrous eCard enrollment program in the United States on March 6, 2007. Photo courtesy PhilippineNews.com)

“This is the first pension service of its kind in the world, and it is 100 percent homegrown.”

That is how Winston Garcia, GSIS chairman and president, described the disaster-plagued eCard program that he has initiated. By electronically capturing the fingerprints of pensioners through biometric technology, the program aims to prevent fraud in the cashing of pension checks.

But in his haste to roll out the program without fully testing it and eliminating all major glitches associated with this new technology, he has adversely affected the lives of of tens of thousands of ailing and elderly pensioners.

Just ask the pensioners who have filed a case against the GSIS in Iloilo, and those in the United States whom he had greatly inconvenienced and whose fragile health he had put in harm's way (read on to fully grasp this statement).

His reckless disregard for the welfare of the pensioners and their families who depend on their pension to survive is changing people's lives for the worse.

His trip to the United States, judging on how his undermanned team of GSIS personnel had performed (it wasn't their fault but Garcia's that they were totally overwhelmed), was a total waste of the state pension fund's money.

The Congress should make him accountable for his poor performannce at the GSIS. The next time he issues self-serving press releases, they should question every word in his claims.

No one is doing more harm to the pensioners than the man who is supposed to protect their interest.

If there is to be any meaningful changes at the GSIS, this feckless Garcia must have to go.

BALITANG AMERICA CARRIES KAFKAESQUE NIGHTMARE

Last March 19, Balitang America, a news program of ABS-CBN International, carried a news story on the GSIS fiasco that occurred at the Philippine Consulate General on March 9, 2007.

It interviewed pensioners who waited at the Consulate for hours on the second day of the ill-conceived eCard enrollment. As expected, the pensioners had nothing good to say about the brainchild of the incompetent GSIS head, one Mr. Winston Garcia.

We have visited the Web site of the GSIS and found that Mr. Garcia loves to trumpet the fact that he had stayed in a Catholic seminary for eight years. We, of course, are supposed to be impressed with the underlying message in his resume, i.e. he can be trusted since he had studied to become a priest.

But we cannot be fooled. Joseph Stalin was also a seminarian, and he ended up presiding over one of the most repressive regimes the world has ever seen.

MALTREATMENT OF GSIS PENSIONERS 'A DISGRACE'

We have received permission from Berns, a victim of the GSIS disaster in New York last March 9 and one of our contributors to this blog, to reproduce (slightly redacted) her letter of complaint to Ms. Cecilia Rebong, Consul General of the Philippine Consulate General in New York City. While it is true that some people found no reason to complain about the incident (and our guess is that they had a shorter wait than the others because they had been processed ahead), we take issue with Ms. Rebong's insistence that she was blameless in this whole episode. As consul general, she cannot possibly make excuses for her lack of foresight in preparing for this event. Her omission in not asking relevant questions from her counterparts in LA and San Francisco had greatly contributed to the problem. Besides, GSIS incompetence is a well-known fact that has been widely publicized in the Philippines prior to their coming to the United States, so she cannot totally claim innocence that there are enormous problems with the GSIS eCard program.

March 12, 2007

To: Mrs. Cecilia Rebong
Philippine Consul General
New York City

Re: GSIS Fiasco

I sincerely hope that the pensionados who are there today [March 11] and tomorrow [March 12] to get their GSIS eCard are treated more humanely than those of us who came on Friday [March 9] and Saturday [March 10]. Last week was a disgrace. There was simply a total disrespect for all the senior citizens and the family members who brought them there. They were left there to sit for hours without any update as to what was going on in the back of the room and what was causing the unbelievable delay. The GSIS personnel who are conducting this procedure are unprepared and totally INCOMPETENT. They knew beforehand the number of people who are coming from the East Coast, but they didn’t do their homework; they didn’t even attempt to find a solution to the problem they had encountered in California. People could have avoided the time and expense of coming to New York for nothing. After all there is such a thing as “appointments” by phone or email. These pensionados that they are dealing with are highly educated people. The GSIS spokesman was just counting on people to give up and leave because they have to eat and take their medications. These senior citizens (our very own people) went home TOTALLY FRUSTRATED and ANGRY. The GSIS personnel absolutely do not understand that their job is all about SERVICE.

I am also very surprised and disappointed that as Consul you did not anticipate the burden that this event could bring to the Consulate. The consulate should have hired temporary help to handle this event. If the GSIS spokesman did not alert you beforehand as to what happened in California, then that is a great omission on his part. I am also very disappointed that you, as head of the Consulate, were totally caught unaware of the CHAOS that happened a month before in California. It just seems to me that it is a large part of your responsibility as Consul to look after the welfare of the Filipino community, at least in the East Coast. Our people, especially the senior citizens, deserve better.

This whole situation is simply and utterly unforgivable and indefensible. I just hope we don’t blame the computer and the biometric technology. Yes, the technology is cumbersome but there is no substitute for better planning.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Bernardita

SEN. MAR ROXAS ASKS GSIS BOSS TO EXPLAIN DISASTER

Tim Ramos, one of our contributors to this blog, has emailed a letter to all the senators of the Republic of the Philippines to ensure that one Winston Garcia is made accountable for his failure of leadership at the GSIS. Sen. Mar Roxas is the only legislator so far to have taken action. Through his chief of staff, he has asked Mr. Garcia to respond to Tim's letter of complaint (click on photo above to enlarge). We are reproducing Tim's letter below.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Senate:

I hope you will read this and take action. The New York incident was a result of very poor planning by Mr. Winston Garcia, head of the GSIS.

In this email, you will find my letter to Consul Rebong in New York and a link to a blog that will give you a sense of what happened.

Please let me know if I can be of help to get you in touch with a number of people who are livid about how they were treated by GSIS.

My fear is that no one will ever know this ever happened, and Mr. Garcia will go on with his merry way without any regard for the welfare of the people he is supposed to serve. I have done some research on the Internet and have seen how his thoughtless way of implementing his policies have negatively impacted the lives of our retirees in Iloilo and other places.

I can give you telephone numbers of people who can corroborate on what happened.

Best regards,
Tim
New Jersey

GSIS INCOMPETENCE CONTINUES....

Just as we thought...the GSIS incompetence continues.

Almost two weeks after the March 9, 2007 GSIS eCard enrollment disaster, the Philippine Consulate General in New York is left with a lemon. They have a self-service kiosk that continues to have technical problems, and no end is in sight.

We have called the Consulate twice to try to make an appointment, but the best they could tell us is to wait for their call. In other words, don't call us, we'll call you.

The second time we called, the Consulate employee who picked up our call said that the machine was not working and that, by her best estimate, they would be able to see us only after three weeks.

Now the BIG question is, is the GSIS going to give pensioners the interest that their money earns while their monthly pension is being withheld pending their enrollment in the eCard?

More important, what about those who depend on their monthly pension to help support the loved ones they have left behind in the Philippines? Is GSIS going to bridge the gap while the pensioners are left with no other recourse but to wait for their turn?

We have read some horror stories on the Internet about the ordeal that pensioners back home are going through as a result of the ill-conceived eCard of one bureaucratic and petty tyrant who goes by the name Winston Garcia.

In Iloilo, for example, there is a pending case filed against the GSIS because of its failure to deliver on its promises to pensioners. The eCard, according to news reports, is being rejected by some banks which have posted a sign saying they do not accept the eCard.

Now, having known full well that the eCard is a piece of garbage, why does Garcia continue to insist with his folly?

GSIS INCOMPETENCE IS BANNER HEADLINE OF FILIPINO REPORTER

Kudos to The Filipino Reporter, the leading Filipino newspaper in the tri-state area, for focusing on the mess created by the GSIS in its eCard enrollment program in the United States.

Edmund Silvestre, veteran news editor of The Reporter who cut his teeth in journalism as a broadcast journalist with IBC 13 in Manila in the '90s, has done a superb job of shining the flashlight on the New York City mess that occurred on March 9.

If not for his reporting, the ugly episode would have otherwise joined a long list of unconscionable and easily forgotten failures of the GSIS, which is being run to the ground by an incompetent chairman in the person of one Winston Garcia -- at the expense of the pensioners.

Readers of the March 16-22, 2007 issue of The Reporter will agree that there was no excuse whatsoever for the GSIS mishandling of the heavy influx of pensioners to the Consulate.

I picked up my copy of The Reporter at a popular bakery in Jersey City. I wanted to buy more but there were only two copies left just two days after it first hit newsstands on Friday, March 16.