GSIS head asks Finance for guidelines on perks

Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) chairman Daniel Lacson Jr. has asked Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima for guidelines on benefits for members of the boards of government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs). Lacson said he has not received a single centavo for being GSIS chairman and neither has Karina David, who has been appointed as a member of the board. “We do not want to give to ourselves what is not in the guidelines," he said in an article posted on news site Visayan Daily Star. He said that as soon as he was appointed GSIS chairman, he asked Purisima for the guidelines. Purisima told him he had already asked the Commission on Audit to submit a report on the status and benefits in all GOCCS. A recent Senate hearing divulged members of the previous GSIS board were paid as much as P6 million a year, or P500,000 a month. Lacson said it’s up to the members of the old board to answer questions of the Senate. On the other hand, he said the new board of the GSIS has not convened yet as its other members have yet to be appointed. The GSIS has a nine-man board and needs at least five members to convene, he said. So far, he said only he and David have been appointed. Consuelo Manansala, GSIS executive vice president for operations, is now acting president since a new GSIS president to replace Winston Garcia has yet to be named. Lacson, former governor of Negros Occidental, said he instructed Manansala to appear at the Senate hearing and provide senators with whatever information they need. — LBG, GMANews.TV