GSIS emergency loan hit as a farce
Newspaper advertisements showed a smiling President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with the Philippine Flag as background. Then in bold letters, "LABANAN ANG KAHIRAPAN (Let us stage a fight against poverty)," followed with the message, "Magtulungan tayo laban sa kahirapan (Let us help each other battle poverty)." And finally, the tagline, "Kahit saan, kahit kailan, maaasahan. (Anytime, anywhere, dependable)"
Then came the offer for emergency loans to Typhoon Frank victims who are in government employ and qualified members of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).
For 8% per annum and a term of three years payable in equal monthly installments, the offered loan was in the amount of P20,000.
Areas that are supposedly covered by the offer include Iloilo, Capiz, Antique, Aklan, Pangasinan, La Union, Baguio City, Western Samar, Eastern Samar and Northern Samar.
Yet The News Today (TNT) in a report gathered that in the Iloilo Provincial Government alone, employee-applicants numbering to at least 500 were all denied of the offered loan.
The same scenario in Iloilo towns where none of the submitted GSIS loan applications came back with a positive response.
As such, GSIS' offer has been tagged as a farce.
"In the wake of Typhoon Frank, the GSIS announced the availability of P20 thousand in emergency loans for GSIS members in calamity stricken areas including the city and province of Iloilo. It even placed newspaper advertisements," a complaint cum report as sent to TNT stated. "But the offer is turning out to be a farce to thousands of GSIS members in Iloilo who suffered hours of waiting in line in order to file their applications. A few days after filing, many of them received, not the money they were hoping for, but a simple text message which read: "We regret to inform u that your emergency loan can't be acted upon because Our records show that u still have loans in default. Our apologies."
"Shocked by disappointment and disbelief, the denied GSIS members have decried the institution for creating false hopes. They stressed that the release of the emergency loans should not be dependent on whether or not the policy holders has an outstanding loan because, after all, it is an emergency or calamity loan," the report continued.
"GSIS's denial of many loan applications have led hose who were turned down to believe that, surely the GSIS has been rendered bankrupt by a corrupt and incompetent management which would rather spend its time buying paintings and tangling with Meralco. The emergency loan offer is just for show, they said. Other members also blamed the incompetence of GSIS's record keeping. They claimed they have been religiously paying their loans. The employees are appealing to GSIS General Manager to reconsider the application of these members for humanitarian reasons."
TNT tried to reach the GSIS Iloilo office for explanation on the issue but efforts proved futile.