GSIS moves towards being 'most service-focused' agency

CEBU, Philippines - The president and general manager of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has assured officials of the Department of Educational-National Employees’ Union (DepEd-NEU) of a more responsive service from the agency.

“We will earn it one day at a time,” said Robert Vergara during a speech in a forum in Tagaytay City last Tuesday participated in by members of DepEd-NEU, the largest association of non-teaching personnel in the country.

Vergara said he envisions GSIS to become “the most service-focused agency in government.”

Vergara said he agrees with the marching order of President Benigno Aquino III that the new administration shall prioritize resolving problems of teaching and non-teaching personnel.

He said they are continuing to improve their services, particularly on the pension fund for stakeholders especially the teachers who account more than half of its membership base.

Some of the measures being carried out by the agency is reducing the number of members’ unposted payments and unreconciled account balances from P30 billion in September to P3.8 billion as of November 2, 2010.

They also improved the access to GSIS services by tapping the Land Bank of the Philippine as additional depository bank to expand services for members and deploying more GW@P kiosks.

The Land Bank will start servicing pensioners by the first quarter of 2011 and gradually expand its services to include all GSIS members. The GSIS will deploy additional 500 kiosks in line with the enrollment of members and pensioners to the Unified Multipurpose Identification (UMID) compliant card.

GSIS Board Chairman Daniel Lacson Jr. said the new Board will be consultative, transparent and service-focused. He said that they will always consult and involve their stakeholders wherever they are so that there would be no secrets.

Lacson said GSIS is undertaking a comprehensive review of all the reform measures implemented in the past and evaluating their impact to the stakeholders.

“We have asked the different GSIS offices to tell us the history of these reforms so we can understand the reasons behind them,” said Lacson.

Vergara emphasized that the review is all about “restoring the heart and the spirit of R.A 8291 or the Revised Government Service Insurance Act of 1997 which is to provide the basic social safety net to look after us in our old age.”

This after the union presented a total of 21 national issues related to the GSIS’s policies and programs including the Premium-based policy, the Claims and Loans Interdependency Policy and the recent move of the GSIS which is to put qualifications on the entitlement to survivorship pension.

The union said that such policies should be removed in the interest of all GSIS members and pensioners.

Atty. Domingo Alidon, national president of the DepEd-NEU said that the presence of both the chairman and PGM to the forum create a new beginning of cooperation between the GSIS and the Union. He said that this is the first time that the union hears GSIS officials facing the issues squarely and that gone are those days where they fought the GSIS and take their issues to the streets.

The union had pledged to fully support the new GSIS administration. (FREEMAN)