PAGADIAN CITY, January 15 - - About 58,000 old-age and disability
pensioners of state pension fund Government Service Insurance System (GSIS)
have started receiving the upgraded minimum basic pension of Php5,000 beginning
this January.
It can be recalled that President Benigno C. Aquino III in his State of
the Nation Address last July 2012 announced that all old-age and disability
pensioners of GSIS receiving less than P5,000 would receive the new minimum
basic pension beginning 2013.
GSIS President and general Manager Robert G. Vergara said that the
pension increment forms part of a series
of initiatives launched by the state pension fund to provide responsive service
to its pensioners.
A 2011 study on the situation of senior citizens in the country by Dr.
Romulo Virola, Secretary General of the National Statistical Coordination Board
called for the need to increase the monthly pension of senior citizens due to
rising commodity prices.
Engr. Leoncito S. Manuel, GSIS branch head here said the pensioners also
received a Christmas cash gift equivalent to one month current pension in
December.
“There are 2,700 old age and disability pensioners in Pagadian City,
Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga Sibugay who received the upgraded minimum basic
pension of P5,000 starting January this year,” says Manuel. (ALT-PIA9/Zambo
Sur)