Ex-SC CJ Bersamin named GSIS head
by Genalyn KabilingRetired Supreme Court Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin is the new head of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).
President Duterte has appointed Bersamin as member of the GSIS board of trustees and approved his nomination as GSIS chairperson based on the documents released by the Palace Friday.
Bersamin will take the place of Jesus Clint Aranas, who was dismissed by the President last year. Based on his appointment paper, the former magistrate will serve the unexpired term of office that began on July 1, 2019 and will end on June 30, 2020.
“I am pleased to inform you that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has approved the nomination of Mr. Lucas Purugganan Bersamin as Chairperson of the Government Service Insurance System,” Executive Secretary Salvador Salvador Medialdea wrote in a letter to the GSIS board last February 6.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo has lauded Bersamin’s “sterling record of public service” and expressed optimism that he will continue to serve the state pension firm with integrity and dedication.
“Mr. Bersamin has a 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. Former Chief Justice Bersamin finished law at the University of the East in 1973, and placed 9th in the Bar Examinations thereafter,” Panelo said in statement Friday.
“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,” he added.
Bersamin, a law graduate from the University of the East, retired from Supreme Court last October 2019. He was appointed as the country’s 25th Chief Justice on November 2018.
Bersamin served the judiciary for almost 33 years. He previously served as Quezon City regional trial court judge in 1986 and Court of Appeals associate justice in 2003 before being appointed to the high court by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2009.
Bersamin previously said he would like to be remembered as the “healing Chief Justice.”
“I wish to be remembered and known as the healing chief justice who brought stability and normalcy back to the judiciary and particularly to the SC,” he said during his final flag-raising ceremony at the SC compound last year.