The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) held a dialogue last December 24 with the Region III provincial chapter officers of the Philippine Public School Teachers Association (PPSTA) to discuss issues related to service records (SR) and the Premium-Based Policy.
Stressing that the GSIS is owned by its members and pensioners, PPSTA President and GSIS Board of Trustee Mario Ramirez said that the dialogue helps in clarifying the issues related to GSIS services which are constantly raised by teachers.
“When I joined the GSIS as a Board of Trustee, I became knowledgeable on how GSIS works and thus, has a better understanding of its operations. Through this dialogue, I hope we can resolve the issues and teachers can also help in taking care of the GSIS because it is ours,” Mr. Ramirez said.
For her part, GSIS Executive Vice President for Corporate Support Sector Enriqueta Disuanco said the pension fund is always ready to discuss with its members what the GSIS policies are all about.
“We welcome opportunities to have a dialogue with public school teachers so we can explain to them why there is a need to implement such policies and answer whatever questions they may have,” she said.
Ms. Disuanco further explained that the GSIS and the Department of Education had started reconciling the SRs of teachers in 2005. Last December 8, the regional offices of the GSIS and DepEd, particularly in Region III, started a series of meetings for the validation of the GSIS records.
“This reconciliation of the GSIS and DepEd records is an on-going process,” Ms. Disuanco noted.
She added that the GSIS transacts directly with government agencies for the SRs so there is no need for members to personally submit these records for reconciliation.
“With this system in place, processing is faster because it is done in batches and our members will not be inconvenienced by going to the GSIS,” Ms. Disuanco explained.
Another concern raised by the teacher-leaders in Region III is the Premium-Based Policy. This policy enables the GSIS to provide benefits to its members and pensioners from the contributions coming from both employers and employees. This policy is anchored on the logic of “what you get is what you paid for.” Under this policy, the level of benefits a member is entitled to depend on the premium contribution paid to the GSIS.
Following recommendations from the teacher-leaders in Region III, the GSIS Branch in San Fernando, Pampanga immediately set up a special lane dedicated to address the concerns of the teaching and non-teaching personnel of DepEd effective December 26.
The PPSTA is the biggest professional association of public school teachers with more than 200,000 teacher-members nationwide. In Region III alone, the number of teacher-members of the PPSTA is about 49,000. The PPSTA teacher-leaders who participated in the dialogue with GSIS were from the provinces of Pampanga, Bataan, Zambales, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac.
On the part of the GSIS, the dialogue was facilitated by Trustee Ramirez, EVP Disuanco, Vice President for Public Relations and Communications Office Ella Valencerina and GSIS Region III Manager Eduardo Fernandez.
