MANILA -- Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte on Monday signed an agreement with the Government Service Insurance Corporation (GSIS) that would greatly improve the agency’s services to the country’s teachers.

The Memorandum of Agreement was signed at the GSIS Main Office with Duterte representing the Department of Educations and the GSIS represented by its President and General Manager Jose Arnulfo Veloso.

Recognizing that financial stability has been one of the sources of anxiety for teachers and employees, adddressing this problem has been one of the things she acted with urgency upon assuming the DepEd post. She further shared that she raised this issue with Veloso when he took his oath before her last year and she was happy with the latter’s reception on the issue.

Duterte shared that in her school visits around the country she learned from teachers and DepEd personnel their concerns about GSIS.

She reiterated,”For DepEd, the promotion of welfare and the protection of our employees' rights are paramount.”

During the kick off activity of the National Teachers’ Month in Bohol City on September 5, Duterte announced that the DepEd was in talks with GSIS to improving the services for teachers.

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

She further added,”This Memorandum of Agreement confirms our commitment to provide solutions to the concerns of our employees—and to move forward with a renewed and stronger institutional collaboration anchored on our shared objective to best serve Filipinos and the country. “

She said GSIS will establish express lanes exclusively for teachers and other DepEd personnel in the GSIS central office and its regional offices across the country.

“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.

Another step is for GSIS to consider adding a Deped personnel-specific option to its hotline.

“Thirdly, GSIS will designate account officers exclusively working on DepEd issues,” the Vice President said.

“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,”she added.

GSIS also committed to hold annual dialogue between its branches and their DepEd counterparts to discuss and address GSIS services concerns.

The Vice President thanked GSIS for embracing the initiatives to help the teachers and DepEd personnel who comprised more than half of the GSIS membership.

“Alam natin ang mahalagang papel ng mga guro at iba pang kawani ng DepEd sa ating bayan.They practically hold the future in our hands,the future of our country in their hands.”she said.

“Ang pagtulong natin sa mga nasa sektor ng edukasyon ay pagtulong natin sa mga kabataan Pilipino at sa ating bayan,” she added. OVP MEDIA