Palace still studying GSIS investment

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., is still reviewing the Government Service Insurance System’s (GSIS) P1-billion investment in DigiPlus Interactive Corp. after a senator raised alarm on the government agency’s involvement in the online gambling platform.

“We just asked for the President’s opinion on this and according to him, we are still studying it in more depth,” Palace Press Officer Clarissa A. Castro said in a news briefing in Filipino. “Most probably by next week we will have an update on that.”

This comes after Senator Ana Theresia Hontiveros-Baraquel flagged GSIS’ billion-peso investment in an online gambling platform amid intensified calls for the government to tighten regulation on such platforms or impose a total ban due to societal costs.

“GSIS got into this when DigiPlus shares were being offered at a peak of P65.30. Those shares have since dropped to a low of P13.68. That’s a loss! In the first place, what was GSIS thinking, investing funds in online gambling?” she said last Aug. 5.

She also criticized the GSIS for allegedly using public funds — specifically contributions from government employees — as capital for gambling.

The pension fund was already under scrutiny after its president and general manager, Jose Arnulfo A. Veloso, was placed under preventive suspension by the Office of the Ombudsman in July over the GSIS’ P1.45-billion purchase of preferred shares in Alternergy Holdings Corp. in November 2023. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana