Commendable leadership

MANILA, Philippines - This is in response to Ms. Marichu A. Villanueva’s column piece titled “Longest-serving Arroyo officials,” which appeared in your newspaper last Wednesday (April 7).

While I do not dispute that Atty. Winston F. Garcia is indeed a very loyal government official – and I thank Ms. Villanueva for saying so – I would like to take this opportunity to explain that Atty. Garcia’s long stay as President and General Manager of the GSIS is not only because of his loyalty.

Atty. Garcia has brought ground breaking reforms to the GSIS, and these reforms helped tremendously in solving the long-running problems in collection efficiency and anomalies in the database. With important reforms like the Premium-Based Policy and the Claims and Loans Interdependency Policy (CLIP), collection efficiency not only improved, but the GSIS’s actuarial life also increased, from 2029 in 2001 to 2064 at the end of 2009.

Also, Atty. Garcia has improved processes within the GSIS. He has brought to electronic transacting to the landscape of Philippine social insurance, through the eCard and the GSIS Wireless Automated Processing System. This move to an electronic processing system has saved the GSIS millions, as the usage of checks and the mailing thereof have been practically eliminated.

The GSIS’ corporate environment has also changed within the tenure of Atty. Garcia. The GSIS was rationalized, its workflow streamlined, and its buildings and equipment retrofit. It now has one of the youngest and most vibrant work force in the country today.

Indeed, Atty. Garcia is a very loyal government official. Yet to a large extent, his long tenure as PGM of the GSIS is because of his commendable leadership and efficient performance.

Thank you. – ELLA E. VALENCERINA, Vice President, Public Relations and Communications Office