GSIS pensioners no longer required to comply with revalidation for whole 2020

MANILA, Philippines — Pensioners of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) are no longer required to report to GSIS offices to comply with its Annual Pensioners Information Revalidation (APIR) until the end of 2020, to avoid coronavirus transmissions.

According to GSIS, they are also restoring the suspended pensions, which were halted after they failed to comply with the APIR.

The balance of the pensions was credited to GSIS members’ accounts.

“We need to exhaust all means to protect our pensioners and members from the transmission of the virus so for the rest of the year, we are not requiring them to report to GSIS either physically or via online,” GSIS President and General Manager Rolando Ledesma Macasaet said.

“Despite this, they will continue to receive their monthly pension without letup,” he assured the pensioners.

Previously, GSIS required members receiving pensions to present ‘proof of life’ even amid the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure that they continue receiving subsidies from the government-controlled corporation.

GSIS normally requires pensioners to appear physically at any GSIS office at least once a year on their birth month.

GSIS’ management also promised better systems that would allow pensioners to report or make their APIRs online, either through social media sites or other messaging applications.

“Next year, we will institutionalize the online reporting of pensioners or Online APIR. GSIS will take the initiative to contact pensioners on their birth month for their APIR through widely-used videoconferencing platforms such as Viber, Facebook Messenger, Zoom or Skype — the pensioners will be the one to choose the method they prefer,” Macasaet explained.

“We enjoin our pensioners to practice using their preferred video conferencing facility now so they will be ready to communicate with us online in 2021,” he added.

As of now, quarantine restrictions have been eased in various parts of the country compared to the onset of the pandemic last March and April, where lockdowns were placed over Luzon and other areas.

However, it does not mean that coronavirus transmissions have stopped.  According to the Department of Health (DOH), there are now 169,213 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country, of which 53,665 are active cases.

Deaths due to the disease is now at 2,687, while recoveries are at 112,861.

Pensioners — most of which are senior citizens — have a greater risk of contracting the coronavirus if they leave their houses for trips not related to a matter of life and death — such as appearance for the GSIS’ APIR.

DOH’s COVID-19 tracker data shows that while COVID-19 infections are more common among those aged 20 to 40 years old — presumably due to restrictions on senior citizens leaving their homes — the senior citizen bracket or those aged 60 and above registered fewer recoveries and more deaths than any other age group. [ac]