• CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
The Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod is asking Philippine Congress to review and consider amendments to Republic Act No. 8291 (GSIS Law) and related laws on retirement packages in the public sector.
This includes their request to allow voluntary contributions for elected officials who have completed one, two or three terms in office to complete the minimum fifteen years of premium contribution to the GSIS, and the lowering of the optional retirement age for government workers.
The resolution said a study on the GSIS retirement packages under RA 8291 was presented to Philippine Councilor’s League (PCL), as basis for policy agenda during its 11th National Convention at the World Trade Center on March 9 to 11.
The study compared the retirement packages of the GSIS members provided under (a) RA 8291, (b) Commonwealth Act No. 186, (c) RA 660, and (d) RA 1616 vis-à-vis the retirement packages in the private sector in terms of computation, difference in benefits, and economic factors affecting the retirement pay, it said.
Based on the study, a huge gap exists between the retirement benefits provided for employees in the public sector and employees in the private sector mainly due to, among others, the basis for computing the same, which is the average monthly compensation (AMC) for the last three years, in the case of retirees from the public sector, thereby resulting to an amount lower than one month of the last monthly salary; while that of the private sector is pegged at one month or more of the last monthly salary, hence, the latter is higher in computation, the resolution said.
There is also a strong clamor among the constituents represented by the PCL to lower the optional retirement age for government workers, similar to the clamor of those gathered from the formal and informal consultations conducted with local government units (LGUs), Human Resource Management practitioners, employees’ associations, and other government agencies, it said.
Research shows that the Philippines is one of the countries with the oldest optional retirement age for government workers among its ASEAN counterparts. Lowering the optional retirement age for government workers would provide opportunities for the next generation of civil servants and allow retirees to fully reap the fruits of their labor at an earlier stage of their lives, the resolution said.
The Civil Service Commission (CSC), thru Commissioner Aileen Lizada is in the forefront of this proposed amendments to the GSIS Law and is fully supportive of the PCL advocacy. Congressman Jose Manuel F. Alba (Bukidnon) has also filed House Bill No. 7334 entitled “An Act Providing for an Option for Qualified Elected Officials to Pay Voluntary Contribution to the GSIS to enable them to complete the minimum years of contribution, amending for the purpose Sections 13 and 13-a of RA 8291, or the “Government Service Insurance Act of 1997, it said.
It is strongly recommended that Congress; (a) Revisit, review, and amend the twenty-six (26)-year old law, RA 8291, to provide higher retirement packages that is commensurate with the government employee’s length of service, (b) Simplify the computation of pension based on the retiree’s latest gross monthly salary in lieu of the three (3)-year Average Monthly Compensation (AMC); (c) Examine GSIS’ management of the premiums paid by government employees, and (d) Propose a reduction in the optional retirement age for government workers; (e) Allow voluntary contribution for elected officials who have completed one, two or three terms in office to complete the minimum fifteen years of minimum contribution to the GSIS, the resolution, unanimously authored by the SP added.*
