GSIS drops requirement for yearly status reports on members

By Ronnel W. Domingo
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—The Government Service Insurance System no longer requires pensioners to renew their status as active GSIS members yearly amid efforts to make transactions less inconvenient.

“This initiative is part of the continuing efforts of the new Board to provide more responsive service to its members and pensioners,” said Robert G. Vergara, GSIS president and general manager.

“We don’t want to impose unnecessary hardship on our more than 300,000 old-age and survivorship pensioners,” Vergara said.

Related to this, the GSIS has signed a memorandum of agreement with the National Statistics Office to collaborate on keeping up to date the pension fund’s roster of pensioners and survivor-beneficiaries.

Under the MOA, the GSIS will provide the NSO with an initial list of all its old-age and survivorship pensioners living in the country—and following that, a monthly report—which will serve as database for NSO.

The NSO will then match the data with its own records and submit to the pension fund a report on who are already deceased or who have re-married, in the case of survivorship pensioners.

This will then be the basis of the GSIS in labeling or tagging the status of pensioner in its database.

However, some pensioners need to renew their active status during their birth month for one last time lest their pension will be discontinued.

These include those whose active status are suspended as of April 30 and those whose monthly pension are about to be suspended due to their failure to renew such status in February, March, or April.

Further, pensioners living abroad would still be required to renew their active status via video call or through the use of Skype, a web-based software that allows users to make telephone calls over the internet free of charge.

GSIS scraps global investment program

By Doris Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer

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MANILA, Philippines—Pension fund Government Service Insurance System is bringing back to the Philippines its entire $670-million offshore investment, taking the view that local assets could be more lucrative given the country’s favorable economic momentum.

A GSIS source told the Inquirer that the pension fund’s board voted during its March 31 meeting to repatriate the funds under its global investment program (GIP), noting that returns from foreign placements fell below the minimum 9-percent target since the pension fundstarted its offshore investing in 2008. In peso terms, the actual average return on the GIP was less than 6 percent during the period.

The new GSIS leadership felt that there were more attractive investments available locally without the fund having to take foreign exchange risks, the source added.

The pension fund will give its offshore fund managerstwo months to unwind the GSIS’ investment, the source said. The GSIS, historically an influential institutional investor in local financial markets, intends to plow the funds into liquid peso-denominated instruments like fixed-rate treasury notes (FXTNs), stocks listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange as well as in some dollar-denominated Philippine global cash bonds, or ROPs.

At the same time, the recall of its offshore investments could boost funds for the GSIS’ participation in the government’s public-private partnership (PPP) program in infrastructure building, whether as a contributor of seed money for a fund being put up by the government or as a direct investor in promising PPP projects, the source said. The GSIS earlier committed to fork out P50 billion out of the P200-billion state-initiated PPP credit facility, which will also involve the Social Security System, Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines.

The GSIS is also very keen on investing in prospective real estate investment trusts (REITs), which allow investors to acquire direct interests in a pool of finished property projects that generate good recurring cash flow.

The source said the GSIS would inform the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas about the forthcoming repatriation of funds, aware of the potential upward pressure the inflow would create on the peso exchange rate against the dollar. But the net impact is estimated at only $200 million to $250 million in foreign exchange inflow stretched out over an eight-week period as part of the $670-million exposure is covered by a hedging facility that sufficiently addresses the conversion of foreign exchange into peso.

About $450 million of the GSIS’ existing overseas exposure is in the Amundi balanced fund managed by Credit Agricole which, in turn, invests in fixed-income securities in developed markets as well as equities mostly in developed markets and some Asian markets. The remainder is managed by institutional fund manager Pimco, the world’s biggest fixed-incomefund manager. The Pimco fund, being heavy on emerging market funds, had actually performed better than the GIP average at 8.5 percent.

The recall of the GIP was backed by no less than the GSIS’ new president, Robert Vergara, a Harvard-educated MBA graduate who spent most of his professional life abroad trading in global financial markets.

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Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

SC backs GSIS employees’ right to rally

By Tetch Torres
INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court affirmed the exercise of freedom of expression and speech of employees of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) when in 2005, they wore red shirt and appeared at a hearing to show support to their union leader.

In a decision by the high court en banc, it dismissed the petition of former GSIS President and General Manager Winston Garcia for failure to prove that employees Dinnah Villaviz, Elizabeth Duque, Adronico Echavez, Rodel Rubio, Rowena Therese Gracia, Pilar Layco and Antonio Jose Legarda were guilty of grave misconduct and/or conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service according to the rules of procedure of the GSIS.

On May 27, 2005, wearing red shirt, the said employees appeared before the GSIS Investigation Unit to support Mario Molina and their union leader Albert Velasco. They raised clenched fist in airing their grievances against Garcia’s administration.

A month later, using as basis the report of the GSIS security, Garcia suspended the employees for one year.
The Civil Service Commission (CSC), however, found the employees guilty of a lesser offence and reduced the penalty to reprimand. The CSC said wearing red to a public hearing and supporting their union leader can be considered an exercise of freedom of expression, a constitutionally guaranteed right.

Garcia elevated the case to the Court of Appeals, which sided with the CSC.

In his appeal to the Supreme Court, Garcia argued that the employees’ failure to submit their answer to the complaint is an admission that they are guilty of misconduct.

“Petitioners must remember that there remain averments that are not deemed admitted by the failure to deny the same. Thus, even if respondents failed to file their answer, it does not mean that all averments found in the complaint will be considered as true and correct in its entirety,” the high court said.

It added that it is still Garcia’s duty to present evidence to support his complaint. However, the high court noted that even Garcia was not certain if there was intent on the part of the employees to disrupt GSIS operations.

“Government workers, whatever their ranks, have as much right as any person in the land to voice out their protests against what they believe to be a violation of their rights and interests.”

“Civil Service does not deprive them of their freedom of expression. It would be unfair to hold that by joining the government service, the members thereof have renounced or waived this basic liberty. This freedom can be reasonably regulated only but can never be taken away,” the high court said.

Senior Citizen's Christmas Party.......Gen. Assembly

December 16, 2009 was the red letter day for senior citizen's of Palompon, Leyte.

They definitely reserved a day for this momentous event to be with colleague's and friends to reminisce the days when they were still young and robust.

Many are looking forward for the announcement that they would be receiving something from the local government, together with the national government particularly the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

Many are expecting that senior citizens between the ages 60 and 70 will be receiving P500 pesos, while those between the ages 70 and 80 will be getting about P1,000 pesos and lastly those above 80 will be receiving P1,500.00 pesos. Unluckily, those who are receiving pensions from either the GSIS or SSS will be getting nothing.

A presentation was made from the so-called Northern baranggays, Southern Baranggays and the Central Baranggays but only two were able to make a presentation which was won by the Central baranggays (above photo) wherein they depicted a serious pageant about the birth of Jesus Christ.

While the other presentor made a mockery of the birth of the Saviour by having an old man represent the child Jesus, the winner made a realistic presentation by having an authentic young baby boy be part of the drama which approvingly, was noticed by the judges to make them the runaway winner of the Christmas pageant.

Part of the appreciative crowd can be seen at right
were seriously following the action at the center of the Palompon Social Center were the program was held.

A sumptuous meal was held right after the program were everybody shared whatever food was brought by them (BYOP), to the once a year Christmas party and get together.

After a hearty meal, without waiting for the food to settle down in their stomach, music of yesteryears was played to bring itchy feet of dancers to grab another to the dance floor and join the beat of music flowing in the air.

After a while, you will notice that the dance floor have been dwindling with dancers, many of which are panting and trying to grab some fresh air and rest their shaky legs on their seats.

Really, the spirit is willing, but the body is not cooperating. After several dances, usually with the same sex, because many men opt to stay in their seats drowning with the local wine named "bahalina", some people can be seen making a beeline to the exits because they can't cope with what is happening in the dance floor.

Well, as they frequently say, "see you next year". (Hoping that they will still be alive for another day of camaraderie and dancing, if still able).