House asks GSIS to review E-card policy

THE House of Representatives Plenary adopted during the special session called by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Feb. 20, House Resolution No. 1505 urging Government Service Insurance System General Manager Winston Garcia, to grant all GSIS pensioners an option to use their e-cards or avail of the mailing system to secure their monthly pensions, amid mounting complaints that in Bohol and in many provinces, government retirees, most of them old, disabled and can even hardly walk, are compelled to queue for long grueling hours at the Union Bank, as well as other GSIS-accredited banking institutions before they can secure their much needed monthly retirement benefits.

Authored by 1st District Congressman and House Committee on Tourism Chairman, Edgar Chatto asserted that, “If the existing technology of the GSIS cannot yet be as efficient in facilitating the needs of the pensioners, then they should be given the option to avail of the e-card or utilize the mailing system”.

The GSIS e-card was conceptualized by the GSIS management to facilitate prompt and secure transmittal of checks to the GSIS pensioners every first working day of the month,, among others. This was also management's answer to numerous complaints by retirees of mail pilferage resulting in loss of their pension checks. “The convenience and the protection of life and limb of the elderly should also be given paramount consideration in the process of modernizing the GSIS system and procedures. House Resolution No. 1505 dignifies the basic right of the elderly to be treated in a humane and just manner, as they go about their routine in securing their pensions”, Chatto explained.

Congressman Chatto made several follow-ups with GSIS earlier but has not received any favorable action. Hence, the congressional resolution principally authored by Cong. Chatto and co-authored by Congressmen Roberto Cajes and Eladio Jala to be transmitted officially to GSIS House Speaker Jose de Venecia thru Secretary General Roberto Nazareno

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