Former president of Camella Homes now SSS Chief

Regino was a former president of Camella Homes, Golden Haven Memorial Parks, Inc., as well as MGS Group of Companies. He was likewise a former economics professor at Ateneo de Zamboanga University.

MANILA, Philippines — The state-run pension fund Social Security System (SSS) has a new head in the person of its current commissioner Michael Regino, who hails from Mindanao and was a former mining executive.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who chairs the policy-making Social Security Commission (SSC) which oversees the SSS, confirmed on Tuesday night that Regino is now the SSS’s president and chief executive officer.

Outgoing president and chief executive Aurora Cruz-Ignacio, meanwhile, will move to the state-run Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC) as a board member, Dominguez also confirmed.

Ignacio was appointed SSS chief in 2019 when former president and chief executive Emmanuel Dooc resigned after the amendments to the SSS Charter took effect. Republic Act (RA) No. 11199 or the Social Security Act of 2018 allowed the SSC to hike contribution rates without the President’s approval, unlike in the past. The SSS had pushed through with the scheduled contribution rate hike to 13 percent in 2021 despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Regino was among the campaign contributors of President Rodrigo Duterte in 2016 and was appointed SSS commissioner that same year, where he was said to be the labor sector’s representative to the SSC.

He also chaired the SSC’s information technology and collection committee, while being a member of the commission’s risk management and investment committee.

Prior to his appointment, he had served as an officer of various mining firms, including president and board member of Agata Mining Ventures Inc., Exploration Drilling Corp., and San Agustin Services Inc.

He had also been senior vice president and chief operating officer (COO) of St. Augustine Gold and Copper Ltd.; executive director of TVI Resources Development Philippines Inc.; and a board director of Nationwide Development Corp. and KingKing Mining Corp. While at Kingking, Regino was in-charge of the mining firm’s Davao operations.

According to Regino’s profile on the SSS’s website, the companies that he had managed “directly created over 3,000 professional and labor-intensive employment and indirectly produced another 5,000 work opportunities” under his watch.

The new SSS chief had a master’s in business administration (MBA) from the Ateneo de Manila University. He obtained his bachelor of science degree, major in economics, from the Ateneo de Zamboanga University, where he graduated cum laude in 1985.

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The article was originally published in Inquirer and written by Ben O. de Vera.