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Friday, March 29, 2024

GSIS Chief Macasaet unveils new “Multi-Purpose Loan” program during Stakeholders Dialogue in Zambo City

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Zamboanga City—GSIS Acting President and General Manager (APGM) Rolando Ledesma Macasaet today announced that the state pension fund is launching a new loan product in May 2020, dubbed the GSIS “Multi-Purpose Loan” (MPL) program.

The new MPL program is a loan restructuring and debt consolidation program designed to help government employees settle their outstanding debts in GSIS. 

“If, for example, a government employee took out a Salary Loan, Emergency Loan and Conso-Loan three (3) years ago at 12% interest, GSIS will consolidate all these loans into one ‘Multi-Purpose Loan’ account. Then we will restructure the payment terms. Instead of paying 12% interest, the government employee will now only pay 7% to 8% interest under the MPL. Instead of 3-years-to-pay, we can perhaps adjust to make it 5-years-to-pay. Para hindi po mabigat sa empleyado,” Macasaet explained.

The outstanding penalties and surcharges of the loans shall likewise be waived by GSIS upon approval of the employee’s MPL application. 

Another important feature of MPL is that it allows newly-hired government employees to borrow money from GSIS. In the past, an employee is required to render at least 20 months of service in government before they can borrow from GSIS. Under MPL, employees who have rendered at least three (3) months government service can now apply for a loan.

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“Napansin po kasi namin, yung mga newly-hired public school teachers natin for example, hindi maka-utang sa GSIS. So what do they do? They go to the loan-sharks. They fall prey to the ‘five-six.’ Kaka-simula pa lang nila sa serbisyo, baon na kaagad sila sa utang – kasi di nila alam ang taas-taas pala ng interes na sinisingil sa kanila. This is what GSIS is really trying to prevent,” Macasaet said.

Under the Multi-Purpose Loan program, a GSIS member who has rendered at least 15 years government service can borrow up to 14-times his/her basic monthly salary. The interest rate is only 7% up to 8% per annum, depending on the amount of the loan and the length of re-payment.

APGM Macasaet stressed that basically, what GSIS is trying to do is give our government workers access to cheap credit.

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