Macasaet stays as GSIS president, GM in acting capacity, says Dominguez

With former Supreme Court chief justice Lucas Bersamin now chair of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), former chair Rolando Macasaet will remain acting president and general manager of the state-run pension fund, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said on Friday (Feb. 14).

Macasaet first joined the GSIS as chair in June 2018 when he replaced Francisco Duque III after Duque was appointed health secretary.

When former president and general manager Jesus Clint Aranas resigned from the GSIS following a falling out with President Rodrigo Duterte due to the plan to sell the Manila International Port Terminal Inc. property currently occupied by Enrique Razon-led International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), Macasaet initially took over as officer-in-charge on July 4 last year.

Under officer-in-charge Macasaet, the GSIS revoked earlier board resolutions approved during Aranas’ watch that authorized the sale of the ICTSI-Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) property “until further review and consultation with all concerned stakeholders.”

ICTSI had claimed the GSIS had “at most, only a naked title” to the disputed 67-hectare land.

Documents obtained by the Inquirer showed that a resolution of the GSIS board of trustees last July 30, 2019 installed Macasaet as acting president and general manager “in accordance with the instruction“ of Dominguez, who heads the Duterte administration’s economic team.

The GSIS board also approved to provide Macasaet, as acting president and general manager, with the monthly salary of the former president and general manager at Salary Grade 31 Step 5.

Also, Macasaet enjoyed since July 2019 “all the other benefits of an employee of GSIS, such as qualification to receive incentives and bonuses and membership in GSIS and the GSIS Provident Fund, subject to deduction of the required contributions.”

The approval of Macasaet’s designation as acting president and general manager alongside the bigger compensation and benefits were signed by the following members of the GSIS’s board: trustees Wilfredo Maldia, Jocelyn de Guzman Cabreza, Alan Luga, Nina Ricci Ynares-Chongbian, Anthony Sasin, Kahar Macasayon, and Carlo Antonio Almirante.

While then chair of the board, Macasaet did not participate in the July 30 board meeting as the vote concerned his new position.

In a Sept. 4, 2019 letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer,  Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea told Dominguez that Duterte confirmed Macasaet’s designation as acting president and general manager—two months after Aranas’ resignation.

Dominguez on Friday did not respond to a query why Macasaet remained in an acting capacity instead of being appointed as the GSIS’s permanent president and general manager.

Edited by TSB