GSIS loan releases jump 30% to P53.3 billion

MANILA, Philippines – The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) reported another banner year last year after loan disbursements jumped 30 percent as the pension fund manager extended more loans to help members.

GSIS president and general manager Winston Garcia said the pension fund released P53.33 billion in loan proceeds last year or P12.36 billion more than the P40.97- billion loans disbursed in 2008.

Garcia said loan disbursements increased steadily despite the spat with IBM that provided defective database software to the pension fund manager.

“The GSIS managed to disburse another record amount in loans despite the difficulties it had with its systems, particularly the system slowdowns and shutdowns due to the reportedly defective database management software of IBM,” he stressed.

Data showed that 877,502 GSIS members benefited from the various loan programs including the Consolidated Loan or Conso-loan, the Policy loan the Pension Loan, Cash Advance, and the Emergency loan.

Emergency loans amounting to P4.83 billion were released to members last year including 223,496 victims of tropical storm Ondoy and typhoon Pepeng. The amount was almost three-fold the P1.6-billion emergency loans disbursed in 2008.

GSIS also disbursed P1.21 billion in pension loan, about P2.75 billion in policy loan, and P43.98-billion consoLoans.

In 2008, GSIS extended P34.70 billion in consoLoans, P1.47 billion worth of policy loans, and P1.6 billion in emergency loans.

In a related development, GSIS is negotiating with several hospitals under its corporate social responsibility program dubbed as the GSIS Hospitalization Support Program (GHSP).

This after its agreement with the University of Santo Tomas Hospital and Capitol Medical Center last year

The program entitles GSIS members, their dependents and old-age pensioners can avail of discounts in medical services from partner-hospitals including outpatient services and emergency cases, medicines as well as discounts in professional fees of select physicians.

The program works like an exchange deal between the GSIS and the partner-hospitals wherein the pension fund buys medical equipment and lends these to the select hospitals. In exchange, the affiliate hospitals provide discounts to GSIS members and pensioners. The medical equipment remains the property of the GSIS. –Lawrence Agcaoili (The Philippine Star)