BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines—How are you going to pay that loan when I’m gone?”
Retired Bacolod public school teacher Magdalena Librodo, 70, remembered her husband, Romeo, asking her that question from his sick bed.
She had taken a loan on their house and lot as her desperate last move—her husband’s hospital bills were staggering after two strokes left him bedridden and she had already pawned her pension.
She did not have the answer to his question.
Worse, when Romeo, former champion softball coach at the Tangub Elementary School, then 71, died, she was dealt with another blow: she could get nothing from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) where Romeo had contributed for more than 30 years.
She couldn’t get his funeral benefits because it went to Romeo’s unpaid loan.
Magdalena was also disqualified to get the survivors’ pension since she was also receiving a pension. She felt that she was being punished for having a husband who was also a GSIS pensioner.
It was an ending that did not quite match the public service Romeo had rendered to the community when he was still alive. Aside from being a teacher, he was also a winning softball coach and had at one time mentored the national team. He was also chairman of the Bacolod Public School Teachers Cooperative.
Magdalena, herself, is something of an institution in Barangay Tangub where she had been Grade 1 teacher since 1962.
For three decades, she was the first teacher of most sons and daughters in Tangub.
Magdalena thought that she could never receive a survivor’s pension. But she thought wrong.
A few months after Romeo died and after being told she did not qualify for his survivor’s pension, things turned around.
Last year, President Aquino appointed Daniel Lacson as new GSIS chairman who then made changes to the policies in the state-run pension fund.
Lacson overturned the rule on the survivorship pension: pensioners like Magdalena can now receive a survivor’s pension.
The amount of the survivor’s pension is only half of what Romeo was getting. But for Magdalena, it was already a big help.
Magdalena is one of many GSIS pensioners and members here who say that since President Aquino took over things have changed, they have been getting better and faster service.
The long lines at the GSIS office which we saw every day were gone, said Bacolod Vice Mayor Jude Thaddeus Sayson, whose daily commute from his house to the office passed by the GSIS office in Bacolod.
The lines were made up of members wanting some service to process a loan, inquire about their status, and retirees. Some of the pensioners came in wheelchairs because they needed to file the Annual Renewal of Active Status (ARAS) or proof that they are still alive so their pensions would continue.
The new GSIS board has overturned the ARAS rule and deployed electronic machines where members can inquire and transact business, including file for a loan, all over the country.