The Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) has recently made a legal conclusion that one of its board members, former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, is not qualified to be a Trustee for not being a member of the government insurer at the time of her appointment in April last year.
In a letter to Executive Secretary and former Supreme Court Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin dated April 11, 2024, GSIS President and General Manager Jose Arnulfo Veloso submitted what he described as the findings of the GSIS “in relation to a whistleblowing complaint” against Gutierrez.
Veloso said the complaint was in the form of an anonymous email claiming that Gutierrez “failed to possess the mandatory qualifications required by the GSIS Charter (RA No. 8291) when she was appointed to the GSIS Board.”
“I respectfully submit to you the findings of the Government Service Insurance System (the ‘GSIS’) ni relation to a whistleblowing complaint, which claimed that Trustee Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez failed to posses the mandatory qualifications required by the GSIS Charter (RA. . No. 8291) when she was appointed to the GSIS Board,” Veloso said.
Veloso provided a timeline from the time the GSIS received the anonymous email up to the conclusion of the state pension office’s study of the matter.
The timeline showed that on March 28, 2024, GSIS received an anonymous email requesting for a validation of the qualifications of Gutierrez when she was appointed to the GSIS Board. Furnished in the email were, inter alia, the GCG, CSC, GSIS BoT Chairman, GSI Whistleblowing Hotline, and the DOF Secretary.
