GSIS to review all its policies

MANILA, Philippines - The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) under the Aquino administration will start a comprehensive review of all policies of GSIS as the pension fund attempts to address the pen-ding issues affecting its members.

GSIS president and General Manager Robert Vergara, said the pension fund plans to revisit the policies “which have been the cause of much ire and clamor among members and pensioners.”

These policies include particularly the Premium-Based Policy, the Claims and Loans Interdependency Policy (CLIP), the Automatic Premium Loan (APL) and the grant of survivorship pension.

Vergara said that GSIS management, together with the Board of Trustees will review all policies, particularly those deemed burdensome by our members.

“We want to restore the social mission of the fund, that is, to provide a basic safety net for government retirees in their old age. Clearly, throughout this process, we need to strike a balance between the needs of our members and the actuarial solvency of the fund,” he said.

The decision to review the policies stemmed from the filing of recent resolutions in both House of Congress, calling for an investigation on the premium-based policy, the CLIP and the APL of GSIS.

Vergara announced last September that under his leadership, GSIS would make the pension fund service-oriented and responsive to the needs of its members.

However, Vergara appealed for patience at this time as the review is being undertaken in phases to cover the different areas of GSIS’ operations.

“I assure our members we are doing everything we can to resolve these matters but this will take some time.”

In 2003, the state-owned pension fund implemented the CLIP, the APL and the PBP to restore the actuarial solvency of the GSIS fund.

The GSIS said that the CLIP involves the collection of outstanding balances of defaulting loan accounts from the proceeds of a new or renewed loan.