Teachers join oust-Veloso call

Public school teachers — one of the biggest contributor groups to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) — have joined the mounting calls for GSIS president and general manager Jose Arnulfo “Wick” Veloso to resign, accusing him of squandering billions in workers’ hard-earned pension funds through risky and questionable investments.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Saturday issued a statement in solidarity with the call of several current and former members of the state pension fund’s Board of Trustees calling for the “immediate and irrevocable” resignation of Veloso.

ACT said Veloso’s continued stay in office is “an outright insult” to government employees, citing reports of P8.8 billion in cumulative losses under his watch.

The Board of Trustees last week sought Veloso’s immediate and irrevocable resignation for alleged “gross mismanagement” and violations of investment policies.

“The GSIS trustees are absolutely correct in demanding Veloso’s resignation,” said ACT chairperson Ruby Bernardo.

“His continued stay in office is an outright insult to all government employees, including public school teachers, whose retirement security depends on the sound management of GSIS funds,” she said.

Bernardo noted that nearly a million teachers contribute monthly to the GSIS in the hopes of securing a stable retirement, only to learn of alleged investment losses and questionable transactions at the agency.

“Under Veloso’s watch, billions of our contributions have been squandered,” she said. “This is not just a financial loss but a robbery of our hopes, our sacrifices, and our hard-won retirement benefits.”

High interest rates on loans

ACT said teachers have long struggled with high loan interest rates and delayed benefits, and the alleged fund mismanagement “adds insult to injury.”

“Hindi katanggap-tanggap sa aming mga overworked at underpaid na guro ang malaman ang malaking pagkalugi na ito (It is unacceptable to us overworked and underpaid teachers to learn about this huge loss),” Bernardo said.

The group also denounced the GSIS’ P1.45-billion investment in gambling-related companies, calling it “morally reprehensible and financially reckless.”

It demanded a full audit of all investments and the recovery of lost funds, saying that “every peso lost or misused comes from the pockets of government workers who toil every day for the nation.”

Fund is strong

The GSIS, however, denied the allegations, calling the P8.8-billion figure “baseless and unsupported by official records.”

“The allegations being circulated are based on incomplete information,” it said in a statement.

“Our investment process is stringent and prudent, and all our investments comply with laws and regulations.”

GSIS reported that its funds grew from P1.53 trillion in July 2022 to P1.92 trillion as of August 2025, with a net income of P100.02 billion this year.

“Our fund life is secured until 2058,” the statement said. “We invested in a publicly listed holding company, not in a gambling operator.”

It added that benefits and loans to members have been delivered “on time and without fail,” and urged the public to rely only on verified data.

Pension trust at stake

The controversy comes as the GSIS faces a governance storm, with current and former trustees accusing Veloso of approving high-risk trades that bypassed oversight limits — some allegedly split into smaller tranches to evade board scrutiny.

For ACT, however, the issue goes beyond numbers.

“This is about trust,” Bernardo said. “Teachers have been faithfully contributing for decades. The least we deserve is a leadership that values every peso we’ve earned through service to the nation.”

As of press time, Veloso and the Department of Finance, which supervises the GSIS, had yet to issue additional statements beyond the agency’s official response.