Veloso questions suspension basis

Suspended Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) President and General Manager (PGM) Jose Arulfo “Wick” Veloso has issued a formal statement, arguing that the preventive suspension ordered against him, along with six other executives, was merely based on bare allegations contained in an anonymous and unverified complaint.

- By DERCO ROSAL

Two days after the news regarding his suspension broke out, Veloso spoke up, stating he was “surprised” over the Office of the Ombudsman’s order.

Veloso noted that the order was dated July 11, which was signed on July 15—just days before the end of the Ombudsman’s term—placing him under a six-month preventive suspension over the GSIS’s P1.45-billion purchase of 100 million preferred shares in Alternergy Holdings Corp.

“First, my preventive suspension is based solely on an anonymous and unverified complaint purportedly filed against me. My preventive suspension was issued without the Ombudsman considering my counter-affidavit,” Veloso said in a July 24 statement.

Veloso said the Ombudsman had directed him to file his counter-affidavit by July 21, to address the “anonymous and unverified complaint.” However, the anti-graft body issued the suspension order “without waiting” for his response and relied “solely on the bare allegations” to suspend him and other GSIS officials.