MANILA, Philippines — This isn’t about my sister, but about a GOCC named GSIS.

When my wife Victoria cracked a bone after a missed step at Sofitel on Francophonie Day, Dr. Vince Gomez put her together with the promise that she could be back to her DI in three months.

Dr. Tyrone Reyes sees to it with her physical therapy, M, W, F.

But, mirabile dictu!, seeing the boutiques in Venice, adrenalin started pumping and wife even forgot her cane criss-crossing show windows marked “SALE.”

Back home, although no fault of their own, when Sofitel manager Goran Aleks learned of the accident, he went out of his way to repair and offer to take over insurance and whatever expenses. Good manners brought about by good corporate upbringing.

Differently, with a GoCC named GSIS.

On the day that I was to present my credentials as Philippine Ambassador to H.E., Anibal Antonio Cavaco Silva, the President of Portugal, I got an alarming long-distance call that GSIS had repossessed our mortgaged bungalow and awarded it to a Shylock.

The skinny: Because DFA was three-months delayed in remitting my initial amortization, GSIS computed the R24,000 due with compounded interest over 15 years for an exponential sum amounting to about R500,000 arrears.

When former GM Winston Garcia was in Paris to deposit at Agri Credit Agricole, he assured me that he had given instructions to put an end to this heist.

Since Garcia left, I tried without success to reach the new GM Robert Vergara to ask if GSIS has reformed.

Have you had similar experience with GSIS? Someone would like to know.

TWIN LIGHTS AT END OF TUNNEL? Sen. Ralph Recto, chairman of the Senate committee on GOCC, collaborated with Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, Sen. Edgardo Angara, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and Sen. Franklin Drilon in crafting SB 2748 to reform GSIS to be responsive and more fair to its members.

Senator Franklin Drilon, finance committee chairman, authored RA 10149, the GOCC Governance Act of 2011, the first major reform law under the Aquino government to review the rationale of GOCCs (including which ought to be privatized) and to stop the abuses.

Real or just press release?

FOREIGN AFFAIRS. President Truong Tan Sang concludes his 3-day visit today. Since joining ASEAN, Vietnam has leaped-frogged us in tourism and foreign direct investments. They must be doing right whatever it is we continue to do wrong?

Philippine Ambassadors Foundation, Inc., concluded its forum on “Spratlys and West Philippine Sea.” The discussions could yet be distilled into a workshop. The value of retired diplomats not beholden to politicians is that they can speak the unsullied truth.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “While we hear ‘dashing thru the snow’ on airwaves…China is firming up its 9 dash lines in the Spratlys.” Feedback: jaz_aide@yahoo.com