Government Service Insurance System

The Government Service Insurance System is a government-owned and controlled corporation in the Philippines that serves de jure government employees. Established by Commonwealth Act No. 186 and Republic Act No. 8291, the GSIS is a social insurance institution that provides a defined benefit scheme. It insures its members against specific contingencies in exchange for monthly premium contributions.
GSIS members are entitled to a range of social security benefits, including life insurance, separation or retirement benefits, and disability benefits.
The GSIS also administers the General Insurance Fund under Republic Act No. 656, providing insurance coverage for government assets and properties in which the government holds insurable interests.
Non-government employees and self-employed individuals, including those working for the government de facto but not de jure and "contract of service", as well as non-working persons, are not eligible for GSIS membership. Instead, they may be covered by the Social [Security System (Philippines)|Social Security System]. Government employees may also voluntarily enroll in the SSS at their own expense, in addition to their GSIS membership.

Legislation

Coverage

The GSIS covers all government workers except:

Members of the Judiciary and Constitutional Commissions who are covered by separate retirement laws;
Contractual "employees","consultants" who have no employee-employer relationship with their agencies;
Uniformed members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, including the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology and the Bureau of Fire Protection.

Does not include: Barangay and Sanggunian officials who are not receiving fixed monthly compensation

Benefits and Services

The principal benefit package of the GSIS consists of compulsory and optional life insurance, retirement, separation and employee's compensation.

Organization

The governing and policy-making body of the GSIS is the Board of Trustees, the members of which are appointed by the President of the Philippines.
The GSIS workforce consists of 3,104 employees, 52% of whom are in the Head Office while the remaining 48% are in the Branches. To date, the GSIS has 42 Branch Offices, 14 Extension Offices nationwide and 58 service desks.

Old GSIS Headquarters Building

The Government Service Insurance System Building, built in 1952 in Arroceros was one of the first of the new buildings programmed for the New Republic to be completed. Designed by Federico Ilustre, the structure's character stand at the intersection between neoclassical and modern aesthetics. As a transitional style for government architecture, its façade generated a series of ascending fluted pillars that had neither bases nor capitals to express a stripped and simplified modern stye, yet, at the same time, it has the character of classical massings and proportions. The corner of the building had been rounded, forming a corner tower with three vertical bays of windows ascending from the entrance canopy. To the left of this corner tower, a flat wall was fenestrated with vertical louvers and pierced screen insets. The elevation in the other corner was defined by horizontal bands of windows and concrete planes.
The GSIS building used to house the main office of the then Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, and of the Office of the Ombudsman. Some of its outer rooms currently house the office of city election officers and several branches of the metropolitan trial court.
This heritage building, right behind Manila City Hall, is being targeted for demolition, in violation of the law on heritage. The owners have been asked by Manila City Hall when they were going to demolish this Federico Ilustre landmark.
Coconut Manila had asked James Jao, the architect and London School of Economics-trained urban planner on the plan for rescuing the built heritage structure. "This building can be gentrified into a mixed-use development. By retaining the existing structure, it can be the podium of a high-rise building behind including an atrium... The existing GSIS Building can host upscale retail shops and some restaurants, with a lobby/reception on one side for the hotel or condominium. This approach can complement the existing SM City mall. An underground walkway can connect both the GSIS and SM," he responded.

Computerization

Database crash

On April 2 and May 11, 2009, the GSIS Integrated Loans, Membership, Acquired Assets and Accounts Management System went into a database crash, causing the agency to incur a backlog in its processing of claims and loan applications. The GSIS filed on June 1, 2011, a P100-million damage suit against the IBM Philippines and its parent firm, as well as contractor Questronix Corp. for supplying defective database software that led to the computer crash.

UMID

The GSIS was the first government agency in the Philippines to adopt the Unified Multi-Purpose ID System, "which aims to streamline and harmonize the identification systems of all government agencies and government-owned and controlled corporations through the use of a unified multi-purpose ID". On August 16, 2011, the GSIS announced that enrollment for the eCard has reached its one million mark.

Investments

On January 25, 2008, GSIS President and General Manager Winston Garcia announced "that it will be investing a total of $5 billion in fixed income, equities and properties and abroad... initially investing $1 billion this year in global markets, and another $1 billion locally".
On the third quarter of 2023, it stealthily acquired shares of the then would-be-delisting Metro Pacific Investments Corporation from the open market to eventually end up securing at most two board seats, having increased its stake to 12%.