INTRODUCTION
Exactly one year ago today, I came to celebrate your 56th anniversary of founding with you in the old building at Arroceros where I had served some time as a trustee of the GSIS Board.
A SYMBOL OF SOLIDNESS
Today, I return to celebrate your 57th anniversary of achievement with you in your new home, the physical symbol of your success as an institution.

This building is also an investment in the future of GSIS as we move towards and beyond our shared vision of “Philippines 2000!!!”.

To a civil service as large as ours — our state workers now number about a million and a half — the value of the social security and the assistance that the GSIS provides cannot be overestimated.

We all know from our own everyday labors what a sacrifice it is to be a government worker. We put in long and arduous hours, and now and then, we may even be maligned by those who do not understand or appreciate what we do.

And yet we have chosen this career, because public service is a privilege, as much as it is a responsibility. Every sacrifice we make is an investment in our future.

And thus, for the government employee, every reward and comfort we can afford to give — beyond the satisfaction of the job itself — is a welcome blessing.
A UNIQUE MISSION
This is the unique mission of the GSIS: to care for our government employee, to secure his welfare, to help him in his hour of need, to comfort him in his old age.

Not only is GSIS the depository and investor of our pooled savings. It is also the receiver and the manager of our trust and of our hopes.

These past two years, the GSIS, has lived up to those expectations. It has not faltered in its mandate to respond to the social security needs of its members, while meeting all the fiscal requirements of a government corporation.

Thus, I am not at all surprised by the report of president and general manager Cesar Sarino that, building on the gains it achieved last year, the GSIS has continued to improve on all fronts: in the speedy delivery of services, in the increase and expansion of benefits, in a more solid finance base, and in greater efficiency.
PUTTING ITS HOUSE IN ORDER
As we are engaged today in a thorough campaign to weed out corruption and inefficiency in government, the GSIS — as one of our frontline agencies serving the public — cannot afford to be tainted with even the suspicion of fiscal impropriety, or laggard service.

I have learned, for example, that the Medicare scam has been effectively checked.

I am also pleased to know that the retirement fund of the GSIS is now so solvent that it easily absorbed the 12 percent increase in the monthly pensions of the system’s retirees granted last January 1st. I understand this is the highest ever given since the enactment of the Retirement Law of 1951.

When I spoke before you last year, I mentioned the need for the GSIS to come up with projects that would provide for the critical needs of its members, particularly housing.

Specifically, I asked for more affordable housing models and designs, more liberal credit terms, and better access to housing by spreading your housing projects to the various parts of the country. I also noted your 5-year allocation of more than p11 billion for the National Shelter Program.

I now urge you to promote prototypes of new housing designs and materials and make them available to the homeless at more affordable prices.

Only an institution that looks ahead like the GSIS, led by a team that is truly innovative can initiate such bold yet highly attainable ideas and concepts.
ENCOURAGING NEW MEMBER-INVESTORS
I have likewise received reports that, to start off your stock purchase financing plan, you have opted to sell to GSIS members various potentially high earning stocks at their original cost although they have now appreciated by as much as 25% of their acquisition price.

This is the hallmark of an enlightened management that has the interests of its members and the people forefront in its mind.

I foresee that the infusion of additional investment in the stock market by your members, a previously untapped resource, will help push the Philippine Stock Exchange to be among the best and most active in the world.

I note with great satisfaction that the GSIS will shortly be offering government securities to government employees and even to the general public. This will be a milestone in my administration — involving the great mass of our people in our growing capital market.

These innovative schemes will go far in encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit among our common people, in engaging them actively and positively in the growth of Philippine business and industry.

Before this, only large corporations and the well-to-do could afford to buy government securities at minimum denominations of p50,000-p100,000, an amount too big for ordinary wage earners to afford.

Thus, small income earners with meager savings have usually earned meager interest. They are forced to deposit their small savings in savings deposits which earn a paltry 4 to 5%. By making T-bills available in smaller denominations, the masses will have the opportunity to earn as much as 11% to 15%, a major increase in earnings.
WIDER BENEFITS
As recommended by the GSIS Board, I approve in principle the grant of the following benefits to GSIS members, subject to the finalization of the necessary executive orders for their promulgation:

First, the grant of another 12% increase in the monthly annuity of all old-age pensioners and the increase in the minimum pension of old-age retirees to p1,200 per month, both effective January 1995;

Second, the allocation of a p500-a-month carer’s allowance for those who retired under the disability plan;

Third, the increase in the 1994 regular life and optional life increase dividends by 25%; and

Fourth, the grant of a 13th-month pension to old-age annuitants.

For these purposes, I direct the GSIS Board of Trustees and management to make available funds that will support the funding of these new benefits.

I also approve in principle the organization of the GSIS-Mutual Fund Corporation which shall provide GSIS members with very meager savings with the opportunity to participate in earnings from the robust capital market.

To you, valued employees of the system, who have risen magnificently to the demands of your work, my warmest congratulations. But of course, I will not leave without recognizing your own exemplary services.

Thus, I now authorize your board and management to grant the amount of p1,000.00 to each of you who has performed competently and honestly as an additional anniversary bonus, payable not later than next week.

Keep up the good work!

Mabuhay ang “Philippines 2000!!!”

Mabuhay ang GSIS!