By Junex Doronio

MANILA — The New Year brings good news to government workers as the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) on Wednesday revealed that it is coming up with a “no downpayment” housing program for government employees.

At the same time, GSIS president Arnulfo “Wick” Veloso also disclosed that they are eyeing another housing program for the general public, on top of their lease with the option to buy program for their foreclosed property.

“We are putting together a housing program for government employees, and this is something that will be a game changer ‘cause there’s no downpayment that we’re going to ask from them,” Veloso said in an interview on ANC’s “Market Edge” show.

He added that the GSIS had distributed close to 900 titles already “with our lease with option to buy.”

“We’re coming up also with “pabahay” in our government or GSIS properties, one is in Fairview (Quezon City) and the other one is in Cogeo (Antipolo City),” Veloso said.

(El Amigo/MNM)

By Vergel Labesig

THE Department of Education on Monday signed an agreement with the Government Service Insurance System to provide better services to teachers.

A memorandum of agreement was signed by Education Secretary Sara Duterte and GSIS President and General Manager Jose Arnulfo Veloso.

Under the agreement, GSIS will establish express lanes exclusively for teachers and DepEd personnel in the GSIS central office and its regional offices.

“This is particularly useful for teachers assigned in rural or geographically-isolated areas who must travel for hours just to reach the nearest GSIS branch office,” Duterte said.

GSIS will also consider adding a Deped personnel-specific option to its hotline and assign account officers exclusively to address DepEd issues.

“Having a dedicated team of account officers will minimize the time needed to reconcile accounts and speed up the process of addressing premium-related discrepancies and loan-related issues,” Duterte added.

The GSIS also committed to hold annual dialogues to discuss and address GSIS concerns.

“This memorandum of agreement highlights our mutual recognition of teachers as nation-builders,” Duterte said.