Bersamin brings integrity to GSIS

Malacañang expressed optimism that newly-installed Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) chairman Lucas Bersamin would impart dedication and integrity to the state insurance firm for government workers as he takes its helm.

President Rodrigo Duterte approved on 6 February Bersamin’s nomination as 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,” Presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

Bersamin was also appointed as a member of the GSIS’ board of trustees. He already took his oath as GSIS chairman on 6 February but his appointment paper was released by Malacañang just on Friday.

As GSIS board member, Bersamin will serve until 30 June 2020.

Prior to his new appointment, Bersamin served as the top magistrate. 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.