SC: Secondary beneficiaries can claim GSIS benefits

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court has nullified a Government Service Insurance Corp. (GSIS) resolution that stripped secondary beneficiaries of survivorship benefits on behalf of members who died with less than 15 years of service in government.

In a decision on Feb. 24 and made public only recently, the high tribunal’s Third Division declared ultra vires, or beyond the scope of the GSIS’s authority, a provision on the revised implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act No. 8291, or the GSIS Act, and barred the state insurer from implementing it further.

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It granted the petition for review on certiorari filed by the father of a deceased member because the GSIS “exceeded its authority in promulgating the Revised IRR of Republic Act No. 8291 by removing the right of secondary beneficiaries to receive survivorship benefits under the conditions expressly recognized by the law.”

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The case stemmed from the claims application filed by a father of a public school teacher who died single in 2017 and with no children, and rendered only 13 years of work—below the GSIS rule’s threshold of at least 15 years for a member to receive survivorship benefits.

The GSIS committee on claims denied the father’s application in 2018 because he was not qualified to receive such benefit on behalf of the deceased member, noting that only a spouse or child may be deemed a primary beneficiary.

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The father then appealed to the GSIS board of trustees, which resolved the case and upheld the committee’s decision. The case was then brought to the Court of Appeals, which also affirmed the denial of benefits in separate rulings in January 2023 and in May the same year.

IRR inconsistent with law

The father turned to the Supreme Court, which ruled in his favor. It said the GSIS rule under the revised IRR adds a layer of requirement that limits benefits to longtime members.

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The high court was referring to Section 24.2.2 of the revised IRR of the law, which was used by the GSIS as basis for denying the father’s claim. The clause states that “if at the time of death, the member was in the service with less than (15) years of creditable service, his primary beneficiaries shall receive the cash payment equivalent to 100% of the AMC (average monthly compensation) for every year of creditable service.”

But the court said it “impaired” Sec. 20 and 21 of the same law, which grants survivorship benefits to secondary beneficiaries when there is no primary beneficiary of members who died while in active service.

“Rather than faithfully implementing the enabling statute, (the GSIS rule) imposes additional requirements on secondary beneficiaries to qualify for survivorship benefits that are not required by law,” read the decision penned by Associate Justice Henri Inting.

The GSIS, it said, also encroached on the legislature’s exclusive authority to “abridge, enlarge, supplant or modify the enabling statute.”

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“Thus, rules promulgated by an administrative agency must always be consistent with the law they intend to carry out. A regulation that modifies an existing law … is void not only for being ultra vires but also for being unreasonable—and must be struck down by the courts,” it added. /cb