Billions of pesos in teachers' GSIS contributions gone

From: People’s Journal (journal.com.ph)

THE National Employees Union of the Department of Education (DepEd-NEU) urged the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate where did the billions of pesos in monthly contributions of teachers and employees of the department to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) SIS from 1997 to 2010 go.

Lawyer  Domingo Alidon, DepEd-NEU president, said they want to know where their contributions ended up and who was responsible for remitting the money to the GSIS.

Alidon said the supposed anomaly was uncovered when the DepEd, Department of Budget and Management and GSIS signed an agreement for the DBM to pay the billions of pesos collected from the teachers and employees that was not remitted to the GSIS.

“In effect, the 800,000 active and retired teachers and DepEd employees were robbed of their monies,” said Alidon, adding the Ombudsman should initiate moves for an investigation.

If necessary, Alidon said, the probe must also include Budget Sec. Florencio “Butch” Abad, who served as DepEd secretary in 2004 and 2006, and former GSIS president and general manager Winston Garcia.###