GSIS ready to face Senate probe on pension disbursement schedule

MANILA, Philippines - The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) said it is willing to face a Senate inquiry regarding its pension disbursement schedule.

Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero wants the Senate to investigate GSIS, saying that the agency’s disbursement of payments has been facing delays.

However, GSIS claims that the payment of the benefits has, in fact, been fast tracked under the current GSIS management.

It claimed that since GSIS started crediting this benefit directly to the pensioners’ eCard Plus ATM account, the agency has been able to send the pension way before the end-of-the-month deadline — or two to three weeks ahead of schedule.

The GSIS processes pension in the first week of the month to ensure that pension benefits are received on or before the end of each month.

“The GSIS is ready to face our esteemed senators to explain the improvement in the disbursement of pension benefit under the present management,” GSIS said.

GSIS said that to date, pensioners can withdraw their monthly pension through any of the 6,000 BancNet, MegaLink and ExpressNet automated teller machines (ATMs) nationwide. Pensioners abroad can also withdraw their monthly pension from any ATM under the VISA PLUS network in the currency of the country where they are in.

“If Escudero has any knowledge of pensioners whose pension disbursement has been delayed, we ask him to provide us their names and their respective birthdays so we can investigate the matter and make the appropriate action,” the GSIS said.

GSIS said it disburses some P1.5 billion in pension benefits every month. Last year, it released a total of P15.2 billion in pension benefits. This amount even excludes the Christmas cash gift received by qualified pensioners.

Last December, the GSIS allotted P1.18 billion in Christmas cash gift to its pensioners, a growth of 27.6 percent from the P923-million budget allocated for the Christmas cash gift in 2007.