GSIS issues rules on survivorship benefits of Muslim members, pensioners’ families

By: Ben O. de Vera, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 23 Nov 2019

MANILA, Philippines — The state-run Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has come out with the rules in granting the survivorship benefits of the pension fund’s Muslim members and pensioners in line with their customs and traditions.

“The GSIS recognizes the unique Muslim culture. Thus, the processing of survivorship benefits for deceased Muslim members and pensioners is now institutionalized,” GSIS chairman Rolando L. Macasaet said in a statement.

Macasaet, who is also the GSIS’s acting president and general manager, noted that while disbursements to survivorship beneficiaries of deceased Muslim members and pensioners had been covered by the Civil Code of the Philippines, Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1083 or the Code of Muslim Personal Laws had “directed the state to consider Muslim customs, traditions, beliefs, and interests in formulating and implementing policies.”

As such, Macasaet said the GSIS’s Policy and Procedural Guidelines (PPG) No. 334-19 “recognized that Muslims are allowed by law to have up to four wives at a time; provided clear policies in processing and distributing survivorship benefit, which includes cash payment and survivorship pension; outlined the documentary requirements; and consolidated existing and applicable policies on survivorship benefits.”

In particular, the primary beneficiaries—which included dependent surviving wives of deceased male Muslim members/pensioners and dependent surviving husbands of deceased female Muslim members/pensioners as well as their five youngest dependent children of minor age, or offspring with mental or physical incapacity acquired as a minor—will be the first to receive payments.

“The grant of survivorship benefits to spouses must be based on marriages between Muslims contracted under PD 1083; a marriage where only one of the parties is a Muslim, provided that it is solemnized in Muslim rites; or a marriage contracted by a Muslim male prior to the effectivity of PD 1083 in accordance with the Civil Code, provided that spouses register their mutual consent for the marriage to be considered as one contracted under PD 1083,” the GSIS said.

“The survivorship benefits must be divided equally among the legal wives. The dependent pension must be given to a maximum of five youngest minor children from different legal wives,” it added.

Next in line will be the secondary beneficiaries, comprised of dependent parents and legitimate descendants, but “subject to restrictions on dependent children,” according to the GSIS.

These secondary beneficiaries, the GSIS said, will be granted the benefit “only if there are no primary beneficiaries.”

So-called legal heirs, meanwhile, may avail of the benefit when there were no primary nor secondary benefits.

According to the GSIS, legal heirs will be paid in the following order: paternal grandparents; full siblings; consanguine siblings; and uterine siblings.

Also, “if a Muslim retiree dies within the five-year period after receiving a five-year lump sum, the survivorship pension shall be paid only after the end of the said period,” the GSIS said, adding that “claims for survivorship benefit and funeral benefits should be filed within four years from the member’s date of death.”