The Government Service Insurance System is a government-owned and controlled corporation of the Philippines. Created by Commonwealth Act No. 186 and Republic Act No. 8291, GSIS is a social insurance institution that provides a defined benefit scheme under the law. It insures its members against the occurrence of certain contingencies in exchange for their monthly premium contributions. GSIS members are entitled to an array of social security benefits, such as life insurance benefits, separation or retirement benefits, and disability benefits. GSIS is also the administrator of the General Insurance Fund by virtue of RA 656. It provides insurance coverage to government assets and properties that have government insurable interests. It is not possible for non-government employees, self-employed or non-working persons to become members of the GSIS. Instead, they are covered by the Social Security System.
Legislation
Coverage
The GSIS covers all government workers except:
Members of the Judiciary and Constitutional Commissions who are covered by separate retirement laws;
Contractual employees who have no employee-employer relationship with their agencies;
Does not include: Barangay and Sanggunian officials who are not receiving fixed monthly compensation
Benefits and Services
The principal benefit package of the GSIS consists of compulsory and optional life insurance, retirement, separation and employee's compensation.
Services Privileges
Sr. Mater Leal D.C
Organization
The governing and policy-making body of the GSIS is the Board of Trustees, the members of which are appointed by the President of the Philippines. The GSIS workforce consists of 3,104 employees, 52% of whom are in the Head Office while the remaining 48% are in the Branches. To date, the GSIS has 42 Branch Offices, 14 Extension Offices nationwide and 58 service desks.
Old GSIS Headquarters Building
The Government Service Insurance System Building, built in 1952 in Arroceros was one of the first of the new buildings programmed for the New Republic to be completed. Designed by Federico Ilustre, the structure's character stand at the intersection between neoclassical and modern aesthetics. As a transitional style for government architecture, its façade generated a series of ascending fluted pillars that had neither bases nor capitals to express a stripped and simplified modern stye, yet, at the same time, it has the character of classical massings and proportions. The corner of the building had been rounded, forming a corner tower with three vertical bays of windows ascending from the entrance canopy. To the left of this corner tower, a flat wall was fenestrated with vertical louvers and pierced screen insets. The elevation in the other corner was defined by horizontal bands of windows and concrete planes. The GSIS building used to house the main office of the then Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, and of the Office of the Ombudsman. Some of its outer rooms currently house the office of city election officers and several branches of the metropolitan trial court. This heritage building, right behind Manila City Hall, is being targeted for demolition, in violation of the law on heritage. The owners have been asked by Manila City Hall when they were going to demolish this Federico Ilustre landmark. Coconut Manila had asked James Jao, the architect and London School of Economics-trained urban planner on the plan for rescuing the built heritage structure. "This building can be gentrified into a mixed-use development. By retaining the existing structure, it can be the podium of a high-rise building behind including an atrium... The existing GSIS Building can host upscale retail shops and some restaurants, with a lobby/reception on one side for the hotel or condominium. This approach can complement the existing SM City mall. An underground walkway can connect both the GSIS and SM," he responded.
Computerization
Database crash
On April 2 and May 11, the GSIS Integrated Loans, Membership, Acquired Assets and Accounts Management System went into a database crash, causing the agency to incur a backlog in its processing of claims and loan applications. The GSIS filed on June 1, 2011, a P100-million damage suit against the IBM Philippines and its parent firm, as well as contractor Questronix Corp. for supplying defective database software that led to the computer crash.
UMID
The GSIS was the first government agency in the Philippines to adopt the Unified Multi-Purpose ID System, "which aims to streamline and harmonize the identification systems of all government agencies and government-owned and controlled corporations through the use of a unified multi-purpose ID". On August 16, 2011, the GSIS announced that enrollment for the eCard has reached its one million mark.
Investments
On January 25, 2008, GSIS President and General Manager Winston Garcia announced "that it will be investing a total of $5 billion in fixed income, equities and properties and abroad... initially investing $1 billion this year in global markets, and another $1 billion locally".
