Palace expects dedication, integrity from Bersamin as GSIS chair

MANILA — Malacañang on Friday said it is optimistic that newly-installed Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) chairperson Lucas Bersamin would exhibit dedication and integrity as he takes the helm of the state insurance firm for government workers.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo issued the statement after President Rodrigo Duterte approved on February 6 Bersamin’s nomination as the head of the GSIS.

“We are confident that Mr. Bersamin would serve the GSIS with the same dedication and integrity he demonstrated in his many years of government service,” Panelo said in a press statement.

GSIS, a government-owned social insurance institution, provides a defined benefit scheme and insures state workers against the occurrence of certain contingencies in exchange for their monthly premium contributions.

Bersamin was also appointed as a member of the GSIS’ Board of Trustees.

He already took oath as GSIS chair on February 6, but his appointment paper was released by Malacañang just on Friday.

Prior to his new appointment, Bersamin served as the top magistrate of the Supreme Court. He reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 in October last year.

Panelo acknowledged Bersamin’s “sterling record of public service capped by a 10-year service in the Supreme Court where he assumed the position of Chief Justice in 2018”.

Bersamin finished law at the University of the East in 1973 and placed ninth in the Bar Examinations in the same year.

In 1985, he became a presiding judge of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 96.

Bersamin was then appointed as Court of Appeals associate justice in 2003 and later served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court in 2009.