STATE PENSION fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has expressed willingness last week to acquire 49% of the Philippine American Life and General Insurance Co (Philamlife), one of the chattels of the beleaguered American International Group (AIG) being put up in the market to raise funds to settle debts.

Winston Garcia, the president of GSIS, said he’s been discussing their probable purchase of nearly half of Philamlife with foreign and local investors for a “possible strategic partnership.” This will only be done, Garcia added, if they have thoroughly scrutinized the books of Philamlife.

The GSIS, according to recent reports, “remains to be the number one government-owned-and-controlled corporation (GOOC) that has a total asset of P441.8 billion and P34.9 billion in claims and benefits paid to its members in 2007. It also posted a net profit of P41.5 billion last year.”

Garcia believes that there is synergy when it comes to life insurance since both draw strength from each other. “The GSIS and Philamlife can be dominant,” he added, taking note of the fact that they currently have 1.3 million life insurance policyholders, consisting mainly of government employees.

The GSIS seems to want to put its fingers anywhere its members and pensioners are not willing to do so. For the kind of poor service the GSIS is giving them, they’re correct in saying it is “missing the point.”Aside from the Meralco it wanted to takeover earlier, now it wants to lay claim on Philamlife when it can’t even fulfill its job for its members.

A report on the PDI said that in 2003, a DepEd research showed that only 20% of “all teachers lived within reach of an ATM.” It appeared that providing all teachers with eCards was costly and inconvenient for them.

If this was so, why then would it be interested to put money in Meralco and Philamlife instead of providing what its members and pensioners need? Other researches also revealed that many of the pensioners from last year failed to receive their Christmas bonuses on time. What were supposed to be for December, were only received in August this year.

Shouldn’t the GSIS work its money to satisfy what’s due its pensioners and members?

Last July, a group of government employees filed graft against the GSIS in the Office of the Ombudsman when it turned over P1-billion in unassigned surpluses to the Office of the President.

The group said that “the fund shouldn’t have been turned over to Malacañang but instead should have been apportioned in accordance with the schedule approved by the System, among the government agencies whose properties are insured in the Fund.”

Lawyer for the group, Alfredo Velasco, stated that they’re questioning the move because while many members of the GSIS are wallowing in scarcity; while other retirees can’t readily get anything, Garcia gave it without so much regard to Malacañang.

Teachers without eCards, retirees who can’t get their retirement benefits – is it right to allow the GSIS to purchase Philamlife when its members remain living in pitiable conditions? If it has the money, shouldn’t it mind first the welfare of its members? After all, they’re the reasons why the GSIS is there in the first place.

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”