Teachers can now avail of GSIS benefits as DBM remits unpaid premiums

Filipino teachers under training. Some 785,000 teachers and other employees of the Department of Education can again enjoy their benefits from the Government Service Insurance System as Malacañang has started settling their unpaid premiums covering three and a half years.

MANILA, Philippines—Some 785,000 employees of the Department of Education can again enjoy their benefits from the Government Service Insurance System as Malacañang has started settling their unpaid premiums covering three and a half years.

Budget Secretary Florencio B. Abad said on Wednesday his department had released P3.46 billion to account for the national government’s share in settling some P6.92 billion in unpaid GSIS premiums for 784,602 DepEd employees, covering the second half of 2007 up to the end of 2010.

The GSIS earlier wrote off some P14 billion in penalties on the unpaid premiums that accumulated over the past 12 years.

“President Aquino instructed us to expedite the payment of unsettled GSIS premiums for all DepEd personnel, which is one of the administration’s priority projects and expenditures,” Abad said.

“The recent fund release is the first step in restoring the benefits of affected employees, as well as in resolving this longstanding problem,” he added.

Last September, the Department of Budget and Management signed with the GSIS and the DepEd a memorandum of agreement (MOA) on the payment of the arrears, of which the DBM committed to shoulder half.

The amount is charged against the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund in the 2012 national budget. The balance will be charged against DepEd savings.

Under the MOA, the GSIS will lift the suspension of the loan privileges and other benefits due affected DepEd employees once this initial payment is made.

This means that those affected can now claim their GSIS benefits, including their retirement benefits and monthly pensions.

Moreover, Abad said, the fund release would support the implementation of a national payroll system (NPS), which would help ensure that prompt remittance of payments on GSIS premiums directly from the treasury to the pension fund.

He explained that the Aquino administration has been pushing for the enrollment of all DepEd employees into the NPS to prevent failure to pay the worker insurance premiums—which has been happening in the current system when salaries went through the employing agencies, in this case the schools.

“Besides penalizing those responsible for the non-remittance of GSIS contributions, we also need to pursue long-term solutions that will prevent this same problem from resurfacing,” Abad said.

“The integration of DepEd workers into the NPS should address this problem as well as boost transparency and accountability in the management of salaries for government workers,” he added.