House probe on alleged anomalies in SSS trading of stocks looms

House Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries chair Ben Evardone is set to file a resolution seeking to investigate the supposed anomalies in the trading of stocks of the Social Security System (SSS).

This, following the filing of an administrative complaint against four SSS officials who allegedly gained profit from trading their own stocks with the same stockbrokers who manage the portfolio of the government-run pension fund.

"Congress, in the exercise of its oversight functions, will investigate through the Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries the alleged anomalies in SSS on [the] trading of its stocks," Evardone said in a message to reporters on Tuesday.

"I will file the necessary resolution [on] Thursday for this purpose," he added.

SSS commissioner Jose Gabriel La Viña has filed the complaint against Executive Vice President Rizaldy Capulong, Equities Investment Division chief Reginald Candelaria, Equities Product Development head Ernesto Francisco Jr. and Chief Actuary George Ongkeko Jr.

"Nalaman nila yan dahil yung stock broker ng SSS, every month nagbi-briefing yun sa amin kung ano magandang stock, ano magandang mga IPO na darating. So itong impormasyon na ito na pwede silang kumita ng pera, nakuha nila dahil sa position nila," La Vina said in a television interview on Monday.

"They used that information to make the profits for themselves," he added.

Evardone said they will also see, through their investigation, if SSS funds were not lost or misused in the transactions, amid the proposed increase in member's contributions.

"We should safeguard the SSS funds to ensure its viability and enable it to pay its obligations to its members," he said.

Bayan Muna party-list Representative Carlos Zarate, in a separate statement, urged SSS to freeze all bank and financial accounts of the four officials and seize the supposed stocks they allegedly acquired through anomalous means. —Erwin Colcol/KBK, GMA News