The country’s largest labor union warned the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) yesterday against pouring $400 million more into overseas investments.
Ernesto Herrera, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) secretary-general, said the global financial crisis could worsen in the coming months.
Herrera issued the warning as the Dutch government via a massive capital injection bailed out the parent firm of one of the GSIS’s foreign fund managers.
The Netherlands’ ING Groep NV, one of the world’s top 20 diversified financial services firms, got a $13.4-billion capital infusion from the Dutch Treasury on Monday.
A unit of ING Groep NV – ING Investment Management – is one of the two foreign fund managers of the GSIS’s $600-million Global Investment Program (GIP) portfolio.
“While ING’s internal financial condition may not directly impact client accounts, such as the GIP portfolio that it is managing on behalf of the GSIS, this nonetheless casts doubt on the reliability of the investment decisions being made by ING’s fund managers,” Herrera said in a statement.
“Our sense is, an institution that cannot prudently manage its own investments or finances cannot be totally trusted to skillfully look after other people’s funds, or in this case, the money of GSIS members and pensioners.”
ING said Monday it expects to report a net loss of $670 million for the third quarter – the firm’s first loss in 50 years. The company blamed the loss on $2.68-billion worth of investment losses, asset write-downs and extra provisions for bad loans.
At the New York Stock Exchange, ING’s own stock has plunged from a high of $45.21 a year ago to as low as $9.89 this month.
In return for the huge cash investment, the Dutch government received new ING shares representing 33-percent ownership of the Amsterdam-based global banking and insurance giant.
The GSIS previously reported that its P26.54-billion ($553 million at P48:$1) GIP portfolio is invested in global fixed income instruments (P10.456 billion); global equities (P4.127 billion); global property securities (P3.08 billion); and cash, short-term notes and other investments (P8.875 billion).
With global stock markets hovering at or near five-year lows, the GSIS announced plans to start “bottom-feeding” by buying even more equities at fire-sale prices. – Mayen Jaymalin
World Day for Safety and Health at Work
“Safety and health at work every day!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government
(NUG) of Myanmar.
Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideos
Monthly Observances:
March – Women’s Role in History Month
April – Month of Planet Earth
Weekly Observances:
Last Week of March: Protection and Gender Fair Treatment of the Girl Child Week
Last Week of April – World Immunization Week
Daily Observances:
Mar 25 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transallantic Slave Trade
Mar 27– Earth Hour
Apr 21 – Civil Service Day
Apr 22 – World Earth Day
Apr 28 – World Day for Safety and Health at Work
