Sloppy record valuation stops retiree’s pension

May I call the attention of GSIS chair Daniel L. Lacson Jr. and GSIS president Robert G. Vergara.

I am a 75-year-old, poverty-stricken, illness-prone retiree, a beneficiary under the Old-Age Pension program of the Government Service Insurance System. I am vehemently protesting the sudden, unannounced GSIS decision to stop the payment of my monthly pension effective this month of September for the very unconscionable, if whimsical, excuse of a practice(?)/policy(?)—a carryover perhaps from the past unlamented administration?—to the effect that a “GSIS pensioner of my namesake has just died.” I was personally told of this news/excuse only on Sept. 9, 2011 by a GSIS employee at the Pensioners’ Section of the GSIS branch in Cebu City, where I went to inquire. The employee even gave me a blank form to fill up in affirmation of the fact that I—Erlinda Villafuerte Semilla—am still alive!

I consider the “decision” very unconscionable because my meager P7,000+ monthly pension is our main source of sustenance, including hardly affordable, costly geriatric health care. And to think that I am being deprived of this small benefit due me in the twilight of my life after dedicating my best years to public health nursing service. I also think that the “decision” is rather absurd and questionable—and borders on “administrative indiscretion”—in this modern age of advanced digital technology. Because, if the GSIS had only bothered to conscientiously surf the files of its multimillion-peso worth of costly, state-of-the-art, hi-tech computerized system to see my GSIS 201 file, for verification purposes, then it could have readily found out that my deceased pensioner namesake could never have the same: (1) full name (i.e., first, middle, last name, as listed above); (2) date of birth (i.e., day, month, year); (3) place of birth (i.e., street/sitio, barangay, town/city, province); (4) full name of father and mother (i.e., first, middle, family name); (5) postal address, among other data available in my 201 file. But the GSIS chose to cavalierly “shoot-first-before-asking”—Poor me!—causing this rickety septuagenarian retiree undue emotional stress.

Please investigate immediately this matter for corrective/remedial purposes and for humanitarian consideration, as well as in the interest of justice and equity, not only for me but for others who may be similarly affected—in consonance with President Aquino’s “Pagbabago sa matuwid na daan.”

—ERLINDA V. SEMILLA, RN, 36060800175, Retirement # AD14898; buensem_03@yahoo.com