NSCB: Wage hike needed this year to prevent increase in poverty
The National Statistics Coordination Board (NSCB) warned that wages must increase before the end of the year to prevent a further rise in poverty.
House committee in Cebu today to probe disparities in oil prices
A PUBLIC hearing will be conducted by the House committee on energy today in Cebu City to find out, among others, why fuel costs more in Cebu than in other parts of the country.
Palace to hospitals: Don"t hike charges over medicine price cut
Members up in arms over delayed GSIS benefits
During each visit to pension fund office, she had to walk up 4 flights of stairs after an hour's worth of travel by commute. After each visit, however, she would go home with nothing.
Angry at the unnecessary hardships of his mother had to undergo, her son, Sherwin, decided to write a letter of complaint to the GSIS in May 2008.
And miraculously, less than a week after the complaint was submitted, Gregoria's first pension was finally deposited in her E-card, the automated teller machine card that the GSIS uses to release pension to retirees.
Delayed pension
Sherwin is contemplating sending another letter to the GSIS after the release of his mother's pension got delayed a number of times in recent months.
At first, he said, the release of the monthly pension got moved to the 8th day of every month. "That made me suspicious," he said in a post he published on the Multiply site of ABS-CBN's Boto Mo iPatrol Mo campaign.
"I told my mother that they might delay it again and move the release to the middle of the month, then afterwards to the end of the next month."
Then last September 8, Sherwin said his prediction somehow came true. "My mother did not get his benefits. They said release was moved again to September 28. That is almost a month's delay."
"My question is, if they delay the release of the money to beneficiaries, how much profit will they get? Wouldn't they delay it again to the end of September and again to the next month so that they will gain profits again?"
"Killing members"
Sherwin and his mother are not the only ones complaining over delays in the government pension fund manager's delivery of services to its members. Online forum www.istorya.net has a string of posts specifically complaining about the GSIS e-card.
Further, at a hearing of the House committee on government enterprises and privatization on Wednesday, September 16, officials of government unions—whose members are also members of the GSIS—complained about delays in the release of pension benefits, as well as of accounts not being updated.
They also told of how members would receive notices from GSIS that they have not paid their loans even though they complied with monthly contributions and followed guidelines for loan payments.
Domingo Alidon, chairman of the education department's National Employees Union said not only are retired members are not getting their claims on time, some also do not get the correct amounts, in effect getting less than they are supposed to receive.
"Pensioners need their money to buy medicine. "What would the old people do? Sit and die," Alidon asked the GSIS officials present at the hearing.
Erroneous equation?
GSIS officials present at the hearing apologized for the errors and promised to the committee that they would provide a permanent solution to problems members complained about by December 2009.
They explained that the problems came about because they migrated members' files from a manual system to a computerized system that crashed due to the volume of GSIS members. This was supposed to have been fixed last November 2008.
GSIS Finance Sector Executive Vice-President Omelita Tiangco acknowledged that GSIS members may have received wrongly credited or computed pensions.
She said that there have been delays in releasing pension for the month of September because they have discovered the problems in computation. They are currently re-computing all the pensioners' supposed monthly claims.
She also said this is the reason why, since May 2009, retired government employees received their pension checks every eighth of the month instead of the first banking day of the month, she said.
She explained that, because the process of updating transactions has been changed, the computer read transactions manually updated by GSIS employees differently.
Now, the computer reads "loans minus pension amount" rather than the pension amount minus the loan, Tiangco said.
The reason behind this is that the pension checks are processed only on the first week of the same month when the checks are supposed to be released, while loans were input in the computer systems a month before the checks, she said.
In a normal mathematical equation, because the unpaid loan was input first, it would be: "loan minus amount of pension" rather than "the amount of the pension minus the loan," she said.
She said they are currently fixing their system and promised that a permanent solution to this problem will be in place by the end of the year. After this, "all pensions would be paid properly," Tiangco said.
Application for refund
The GSIS officials also said members who did not get their full benefits will be given refunds.
For the month of September, when they noticed the problem, GSIS pensioners do not have to apply to have their pensions recomputed, said GSIS IT consultant Helen Macasaet.
For previous months, however, since there are too many GSIS members, it would be difficult to reprocess and re-compute all transactions.
This means members will have to apply to get arrears in benefits refunded. "No application, no refund. It is needed," Macasaet said.
House of Representatives Union Executive-Director Lilia Consul stressed that lowly employees of the lower House, such as janitors and gardeners, would find it hard to file for applications to refund.
Consul demanded that GSIS pay wrongly credited GSIS members and pensioners with interest after they resolve their internal computer problems because members have not received their benefits at proper times.
"You should return money that is rightfully ours," Consul said gaining cheers from the audience.
But Macasaet said that it would be the human resources department of the lower house, or any other government agency, that should be responsible for filing such applications to GSIS.
New guidelines for claims
Macasaet said that they have "explicit measures to resolve back logs" due to the computer crash that happened in previous years and last March 13, as well as the problems of the pensioners.
She said that they have defined new guidelines and a schedule for employees to manually input records in the new database or the Claims and Pensions Administration System.
They also launched the Social System Actions. "This is for personnel staff and training to better serve GSIS members," she said.
The last is their "technical solutions." This includes the procurement of hardware and software. All hardware and software are procured but only some are implemented.
James Velasquez, President and General Manager of IBM Philippines, said that they already delivered last May 26 and fixed the said computer problems of GSIS but the problem is implementation.
Velasquez voiced that it was not fair that IBM, being the IT systems partner of GSIS, is blamed for operational setbacks of the government agency. "There is problem with quick implementation of systems," he said.
Reactivation of membership
Another reason for not receiving claims is that members might not have reactivated their membership, Macasaet said.
This was because they were computerizing everything, Macasaet said.
Macasaet added that reactivation was requested by GSIS to its members when it started giving pension checks every eighth of the month and adapted a computerized system.
"There are only 1.36 million active, legitimate members," Macasaet said. Before, when the system was still manual, they had 2.7 members.
"GSIS employees just granted loans before. Because they were lazy to check the millions of documents, they approved everything," she said. But now, since there's a computer, they are able to check which members are really paying and which pensioners reactivated their membership.
"If not for this, GSIS would lose a lot of money," she said.
Suffering seniors
Asked if he is amenable to the GSIS requirement to make retirees apply for refunds, Sherwin said, "I am angry. Pensioners are obviously old. You should not expect them to line up and come back over and over again."
"I don't like seeing or knowing that my mother is suffering. She is old and deserves the fruits of her labor, she paid her monthly contributions on time she should receive her benefits on time," he said.
Further, he said, "my mom has eye problems and high blood pressure." The pension money, she receives monthly, he said, is important because she needs it to pay for medicines and for doctor's appointments.
PRC: Results of electrical engineer exams released
The successful examinees who garnered the ten (10) highest places in the Registered Electrical Engineer Licensure Examination are the following:
RANK / NAME / SCHOOL / RATING(%)
1 Eruell Camus Obina / Camarines Norte State College-Daet / 90.75
2 Noel Tuzo Arreza / Mindanao State University-Marawi City / 89.30
3 Marwin Timbol Pangilinan / Holy Angel University / 89.00
4 Richard Macatangay Guba / University of Batangas / 88.90
5 Roldan Principe Lualhati / Polytechnic University of the Philippines-Main-Sta. Mesa / 88.45
6 Jesus Colita Rupinta / Technological Institute of the Philippines-Manila / 88.35
7 Emilyn Mae Sicat Matibag / University of Batangas / 88.15
8 Joonie Magpantay Valencia / Batangas State University-Batangas City / 87.60
9 Eddy Jose Yaba Managuit / Camarines Norte State College-Daet / 87.20
10 John Paul Palma Cua / University of the Philippines-Los Baños / 87.10
The successful examinees who garnered the six (6) highest places in the Registered Master Electrician Licensure Examination are the following:
RANK / NAME / SCHOOL / RATING(%)
1 Cir Capio Padua / Vocational School / 85.50
2 Salvador Jr De Leon Parangat / Philippine College Of Science & Technology-Calasiao / 84.50
3 Danilo Parreno Allado / Western Visayas College Of Science & Technology-La Paz / 83.50
Ma Glaiza Dacillo Panuelos / Bicol University-Legazpi / 83.50
4 Marice Mae Velarde Competente / Bicol University-Legazpi / 83.00
Jeril Jay Rodolfo Ebrada / Bicol University-Legazpi / 83.00
5 Mikhail Laude Alba / Cebu State College Of Science & Technology System(Csat) / 82.50
Alberto Jr Lancila Jala / Central Visayas State C.A.F.T.-Tagbilaran / 82.50
6 John Revie Cruz Estilong / Vocational School / 82.00
Aireen Clacio Mirandilla / Camarines Norte State College-Daet / 82.00
Jayson Bryan Esguerra Mutuc / Polytechnic University Of The Philippines-Main-Sta. Mesa / 82.00
Patrocenio Jr Bacongan Pacala / Technical School / 82.00
Rodrigo Solis Papa / Vocational School / 82.00
2 SuperFerry 9 crew insist wind caused ship to sink
SuperFerry 9 survivor recounts tragedy on 'I Survived'
Gwen won't scrap deal buying Balili property
Despite the result of the ground survey conducted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources that found 82 percent of the controversial Balili property submerged in water, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia stood firm that she will not rescind the P98.9 million transaction.
Garcia is determined to fulfill her task in deciding and defining the vision of the province that includes developing the site into an international port and dumpsite for coal ash.
"I am not rescinding it. I will not waver, I will not be indecisive and I will not say one thing today and say another tomorrow," said Garcia yesterday.
DENR 'failure'
THE regional director of the Register of Deeds said yesterday the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) failed to caution them about the condition of the 24.7-hectare Balili property the Province bought.
Margot denies receiving text about "harassment"
CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City First Lady Margot Osmeña has denied receiving a call or text message from the mother of the alleged harassment victim of her son, Miguel.
Smits earlier said she tried contacting Mrs. Osmeña after learning that her daughter received threats via text messages from a number that they believe was used by Miguel.
"I never received any call or text from Atty. Smits," Mrs. Osmeña said.
She, however, refused to comment any further as it will be Mayor Tomas Osmeña who will handle the matter. The mayor and his wife are on a 10-day trip to Houston, Texas for his quarterly check up at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Police to help Miguel complainant
CEBU City Police Office (CCPO) Director Patrocinio Comendador said police are waiting for Samantha Elise Diores Benitez to decide whether to pursue a complaint against the son of Mayor Tomas Osmeña.
Bar faces closure
CEBU City Hall has started the process to shut down the resto-bar where the trouble involving Miguel Osmeña started, after finding out that it is operating without a business permit and a special permit to sell and serve liquor within a 100-meter radius from schools.
Fortuna readies charges of graft vs. Jonas, others
MANDAUE City Administrator Briccio Boholst has asked a supplier to replace "damaged" housing materials delivered to Barangay Umapad's fire victims, and vowed to run after those involved in the anomaly.
City Council forms committee to probe farmers-Fusilero row
The City Council yesterday formed an ad hoc committee that would investigate the looming unrest in some mountain barangays owing to the conflict between residents and retired Police General Tiburcio Fusilero.
Thelma gets money claim on Larrañaga
THE Regional Trial Court (RTC) yesterday ordered the release of the amount paid as indemnification and damages to the Chiong family as part of the sentence handed against Francisco Juan "Paco" Larranaga.
Ombudsman seeks reconsideration of COA findings
The Office of the Ombudsman Visayas is seeking for a reconsideration of the Commission on Audit findings that it overspent government funds for its annual physical fitness activities and corporate planning last year.
Comelec OKs P1.6B deal to purge voters' list
Comelec: Let employees register during work hours
Police beefs up intel on election hot spots
House bill to address possible "no-el" in 2010
Brownouts to plague RP on election year - DOE chief
Aquino urged to rethink stand on RH bill
Teodoro like '6 yrs of Arroyo'—militants
Prosecuting Arroyo not a priority - Teodoro
Teodoro: Resignation from DND 'in due time'
Palace asks Fernando: Respect Lakas decision
Erap to file libel raps vs Yuchengco
Palace denies hand in Lacson-Estrada rift
Ex-SEC chief: Erap got billions from PLDT shares sale
Dumlao: Erap ordered Dacer, Corbito murders
Napaiyak si dating police colonel Glenn Dumlao nang humarap siya sa ABS-CBN News sa kauna-unahang pagkakataon kanina. Si Dumlao ay isa sa mga pangunahing testigo sa Dacer-Corbito double murder case. Lakas loob na sinabi ni Dumlao na pinaniniwalaan niyang si dating pangulong Joseph Estrada ang nag-utos na patayin ang PR man na si Bubby Dacer.
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