Duterte names BIR deputy as GSIS head

President Duterte has officially appointed Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Deputy Commissioner Jesus Clint O. Aranas as president and chief executive of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea, in a Nov. 7 letter to the GSIS board of trustees, said the President had approved Aranas’ appointment as head of the state-run pension fund.

The President also appointed Aranas as member of the GSIS board to serve the unexpired term of its former chair and now Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III until June 30 next year.

Aranas told the Inquirer last week that he might start work at the GSIS by early December, as he would still preside over a taxation conference this month.

Prior to his appointment to GSIS, Aranas had tangled with BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay over the allegedly anomalous reduction of Del Monte Philippines Inc.’s tax liabilities.

In June, tax informant Danilo Lihaylihay filed a plunder complaint against Dulay and 16 other BIR officials with the Ombudsman over the alleged slashing of Del Monte’s tax liabilities from P30 billion in 2011 to P65.4 million in 2013. The settlement of the liabilities happened this year.

In July, Dulay accused Aranas of initiating an agency investigation on the matter.

Dulay alleged that Aranas preempted him by immediately acting on Lihaylihay’s anonymous letter-complaint on the matter by issuing “show-cause’’ orders to the implicated officials. —BEN O. DE VERA