Teachers’ group asks SC to void faulty GSIS deductions

A TEACHERS’ group on Monday filed a petition asking the Supreme Court (SC) to nullify the recurring deductions allegedly made from the salaries of the teachers and other government employees on three Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) policies.

In its petition for review on certiorari, the group Teacher’s Dignity Coalition (TDC) said the deduction under the policies initiated by former GSIS President and General Manager Winston Garcia were unconstitutional.

The said policies are the Premium-Based Policy (PBP), Automatic Premium Loan Policy (APL), and Claims and Loans Interdependency Policy (CLIP).

TDC claimed that under the PBP, the teachers’ benefits are computed by the GSIS not on the basis of actual premium payments deducted from members, but on premium payments actually remitted to and posted by the GSIS in its database.

Meanwhile, the APL allows the GSIS to automatically convert as personal loan of the employees the amount of mandated shares which the government-employer fails to pay, with interest of 6 percent per annum compounded monthly.

CLIP, they said, subjects a defaulting member’s claims and benefits to compensation against such member’s loan payables to the GSIS.

The TDC, together with the Manila Public School Teachers Association (MPSTA) and four individual petitioners, earlier filed a complaint against GSIS but the Court of Appeals upheld last month the constitutionality of the GSIS policies. –Rommel C. Lontayao, Manila Times