File photo of the GSIS Palawan Branch Building in Puerto Princesa City. (Photo by Celeste Anna R. Formoso)
PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan -- Some 20,000 public school teachers in Palawan may be unable to apply for loans with the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) due to non-remittance of their premiums in the past two months.
GSIS Palawan Branch Manager Marina Ignacio said Friday afternoon that the Department of Education’s (DepEd) office in the Mimaropa region has not been remitting the 9 percent personal share from the teacher’s basic salary and the 12 percent share of the government in Puerto Princesa and the province for the GSIS premiums since January.
Ignacio said the premiums that have not yet been remitted are now approximately PHP6 million with a penalty of PHP600,000.
“DepEd Mimaropa sent a letter in January requesting to be given enough time to update their system before they remit, but it was denied. Their reason is they are updating the salaries due to the increase. However, this should not be a reason not to remit,” she said.
“It’s not allowed, and our reason is that it can pay the premiums from the old salaries, and pay later the amount that the salary adjustments will incur,” said Ignacio as the GSIS’ reason to deny DepEd-Mimaropa’s request.
Ignacio was quick to clarify that the non-payment of remittance is not the fault of DepEd-Palawan.
“The DepEd here is not at fault; it’s the DepEd regional office that is the cause of delay in remittance. They have to pay the penalty for late remittance. The effect of this is that, if they are unable to remit after three months, the teachers cannot apply for loans,” she added.
DepEd-Palawan Assistant Division Supt. Rose Vicente in a phone interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Friday morning, said they are doing everything to remind their regional office about the remittance.
“We’ve received a letter from the GSIS and we already endorsed it to our regional office. We’re hoping and praying that this problem would be resolved immediately because our teachers would be affected if they cannot avail of loans when they have emergencies,” she said.
Vicente said they have sent one of their personnel to the GSIS in Palawan on Thursday to know more details they can report to DepEd-Mimaropa.
Section 6 (b) of Republic Act No. 8219, or the GSIS Act of 1997, mandates that each employer should remit directly to the GSIS the employees’ and employers’ contributions within the first 10 days of the calendar month following the month to which the contributions apply. The law also provides for a 2 percent monthly interest in case of delay.
Ignacio said the public school teachers in Palawan are not the only ones affected, but also those in other provinces in Mimaropa. (PNA)
