No revalidation, no pension for Cebu’s retired employees
SEVERAL retired government employees in Cebu have been unable to receive their monthly pension after failing to undergo revalidation, the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) said yesterday.
GSIS-Cebu Branch Manager Mercedes Enriquez said 30 percent of the 18,000 pensioners aged 79 years old and below have not submitted themselves for revalidation.
Earlier, GSIS restored the policy requiring the annual reporting of all GSIS pensioners.
The reactivation of pensioners started last March 23 and ended last June 30 through the “Annual Pensioners Information Revalidation (APIR)” program.
“Only those 79 years old local pensioners, they have to proceed to the GWAPS (GSIS Wireless Automated Processing System) kiosk to renew so that their pensions will not be suspended. But those 80 years old and above, it will not be suspended but the Philippine Postal Corp. will validate whether or not, they are still alive,” Enriquez said.
During those periods, all pensioners aged 79 years old and below, regardless of birth month will have to undergo the revalidation process and reactivate their status.
Enriquez said they have 25 GWAPS kiosks all over Cebu province that are located at GSIS offices, provincial capitols, city halls, selected municipal offices and large government agencies.
The program was intended to ensure that the pensioners and not other people are receiving the pensions.
“So if they were already revalidated and they’ve renewed their GSIS pension after being suspended, then next year, they have to come back during their birth month and for the incoming years for the continued validation process,” she said.
The GSIS-Cebu will also conduct an APIR caravan on July 14 in Bogo City and July 16 in Danao City.
“We are also encouraging other pensioners from the neighboring towns to avail our caravan,” she said.
Pensioners are advised to bring their GSIS eCard or Unified Multi-Purpose Identification (UMID) card; or any two valid government IDs with picture and signature that may be presented during the revalidation.
Pensioners are also advised to secure a UMID card which is already Europay, Mastercard and Visa (EMV) compliant.
Enriquez said GSIS has accredited Land Bank and Union Bank to issue the UMID-EMV cards.
But Enriquez said only Union Bank started releasing UMID-EMV cards compared to Land Bank.
She said those who fail to secure UMID-EMV cards may no longer be able to receive their monthly pension using their old cards.
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