GSIS releases pension early

THE Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) said its pensioners received their monthly pension on Thursday, earlier than the usual crediting date of every eighth of the month.

“We already deposited their pension yesterday. So, by today, April 2, all our pensioners should be able to receive it,” GSIS President and General Manager Rolando Ledesma Macasaet said.

“We know that most of our retirees rely on their pension for their daily upkeep and maintenance medicines. We hope that this will somehow help ease the burden of our senior citizens during the crisis,” he added.

The state pension fund has allotted P5.7 billion for the monthly pension of some 511,000 pensioners nationwide.

“The early release of pension is one of the several pro-active measures we are taking to help our pensioners cope with the Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) crisis,” Macasaet said.

Last week, GSIS extended the deadline for the Annual Pensioners Information Revalidation to May 15, 2020. This means all old-age and survivorship pensioners born in March and April do not need to personally report to GSIS during their birth months. They may instead renew their active status on May 15, 2020.

“We do not want to expose our pensioners to any unnecessary risk, especially in light of reports that elderly people are the ones highly vulnerable to… Covid-19. We want them to stay home for the time being,” the GSIS chief said.

MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO