Teachers may lose pension

Due to DepEd’s failure to update GSIS records of employees

ABOUT 198,000 teachers and employees of the Department of Education may lose their pension fund credits with the Government Service Insurance System.

This is because the DepEd failed to meet the deadline set by the GSIS to reconcile and update the service records of its personnel.

Davao City Rep Karlo Alexei Nograles asked the DepEd to take immediate action to prevent teachers from paying for the ineptitude of the department.

The issue was raised in a recent hearing conducted by the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability chaired by Iloilo Rep. Jerry Trenas based on the resolution of AVE Partylist Rep. Eulogio Magsaysay.

GSIS representatives told the panel that they will be forced to adopt the outdated service records of the 198,000 government employees after DepEd failed to meet their February 28 deadline.

“The committee was told that the GSIS will treat the outdated records as true even if it is to the detriment and disadvantage of the teachers. Sorry na lang daw sila kung malas nila na isa sila sa mga hindi na-update,” Nograles lamented.

“This is very disturbing because it reveals the utter arrogance and apathy of those running the GSIS and an education department which seems to be so inept in managing the records of their own people,” he added.

During the hearing, it was revealed that the service records of more than 198,000 GSIS members in DepEd are still being updated, thus causing confusion especially on premiums that are supposed to have already been deducted from teachers’ salaries and paid to GSIS.

It was also discovered that a substantial amount of premiums were not remitted to GSIS by DepEd in 1997 until 1998. This was supposed to have been paid directly by the  Department of Budget to GSIS.

To this day however, the DBM has yet to complete its payment thereby forcing pro-rated deductions on the policy claims of affected DepEd employees and teachers.

”Basta ang alam lang ng mga teacher, may automatic deduction ang GSIS sa sweldo nila and obviously, the teachers just assume it is being remitted to GSIS. Hindi na kasalanan ng teacher if the premiums are not being remitted. Kasalanan yan ng DepEd so I don’t understand why the teachers are being made to suffer,” Nograles stressed.

Because of this, the committee asked the GSIS to stop deducting unremitted premiums from the policy benefits of teachers and DepEd employees.

Panel members also agreed to recommend that deductions made to teachers arising from mis-deduction or double deduction of premiums should be refunded to the teachers with interest. –http://www.journal.com.ph/index.php/news/headlines/409-teachers-may-lose-pension