By Hail to the Chair — December 17, 2025
CORRUPTION is not exclusive to the Department of Public Works and Highways. Based on recently publicized state audit findings, the Social Security System (SSS) headed by its president, a certain Robert de Claro, is apparently plagued with graft and corrupt practices, too.
In its 2024 Annual Audit Report recently released to the public, the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged the SSS for spending P13.195 million of taxpayers’ money on toilet paper alone. That staggering amount is for 143,424 rolls of toilet paper, or approximately P92 per roll. The COA pointed out that the price of standard toilet paper costs anywhere from P10 to P50 per roll. It also revealed that the SSS exceeded the two-month supply limit, and allowed the supplier to retain 116,046 rolls.
No public bidding was done for the multi-million procurement contract. Even the agreement was not in writing; it is just an oral contract and, apparently, nothing more. As of this writing, the name of the supplier of the very expensive toilet paper has not been revealed by de Claro.
From the available indications, this shameless wastage of public funds will prove to be prejudicial to the 42 million members of the SSS.
In their clumsy attempt to dispute the findings of the COA, de Claro and SSS Commissioner Victor Limlingan offered the lame excuse that the SSS is not covered by the General Appropriations Act and so it is free to purchase its toilet paper supply without any public bidding, and without any regard for the amount of money to be spent.
They also claimed that the toilet paper they purchased with public funds is very expensive, ranging from P90 to P200 for each roll, because they wanted premium quality toilet paper for the use in the toilets of the SSS. As for the excess toilet paper retained by the supplier in the latter’s warehouse, de Claro and Limlingan said that the SSS lacks space for thei storage of the same.
Their explanation stinks, much like soiled toilet paper.
There is nothing in the General Appropriations Act of 2024 which categorically exempts the SSS from complying with the official way to purchase supplies mandated under Republic Act No. 12009, or the New Government Procurement Act. Under the procurement law, the SSS’s toilet paper procurement, costing P13.195 million, must be subjected to a public bidding.
An appropriations law is all about the national budget. It is not about whether or not a government agency is exempted from compliance with the national procurement law.
If the SSS is exempted from compliance with the official way for government agencies to acquire supplies using public funds, then why is it that the SSS was subjected to audit by the COA to begin with?
At the very least, government procurement contracts have to be properly documented. De Claro and Limlingan did not even bother to explain why their stinking toilet paper deal is covered only by a verbal agreement.
The SSS toilet paper deal has all the badges of a large-scale scam, brazenly done a year before the on-going flood control infrastructure was exposed in September 2025. This is enough reason for the Office of the Ombudsman to file criminal and administrative charges against de Claro and his underlings.
The Ombudsman may file the charges on its own volition, or upon acting on a complaint from the general public, myself included. ■
- ₱75 Million Heist: Cops Gone Full Bandit
- ₱6.7-Trillion Temptation: The Great Pork Zombie Revival and the “Collegial” Vote-Buying Circus
- ₱1.9 Billion for 382 Units and a Rooftop Pool: Poverty Solved, Next Problem Please
- ₱1.35 Trillion for Education: Bigger Budget, Same Old Thieves’ Banquet
- ₱1 Billion Congressional Seat? Sorry, Sold Out Na Raw — Si Bello Raw Ang Hindi Bumili
- “We Will Take Care of It”: Bersamin’s P52-Billion Love Letter to Corruption
- “Skewed Narrative”? More Like Skewered Taxpayers!
- “My Brother the President Is a Junkie”: A Marcos Family Reunion Special
- “Mapipilitan Akong Gawing Zero”: The Day Senator Rodante Marcoleta Confessed to Perjury on National Television and Thought We’d Clap for the Creativity
- “Bend the Law”? Cute. Marcoleta Just Bent the Constitution into a Pretzel
- “Allocables”: The New Face of Pork, Thicker Than a Politician’s Hide
- “Ako ’To, Ading—Pass the Shabu and the DNA Kit”
KWEBA ni BAROK 
Leave a comment