The Virac office of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) last week brought its campaign for the GSIS Touch mobile app to the provincial capitol in a bid to increase the branch’s enrolment figures.
GSIS Virac head Maria Theresa R Vega, accompanied by job order worker Carmela Tabirara, took up a table at the second floor lobby of the capitol main building to persuade fellow civil servants to download the app to their mobile phones and then sign up for the its various services.
Active members need to sign up with eGSIS so they no longer have to go to the branches or GWAPS kiosks to avail of the services, she told the Tribune.
As of Feb. 8, 2024, 64 percent of the 6,872 active GSIS members in Catanduanes have already signed up to GSIS Touch, better than the 48 percent logged by the South Luzon area.
This does not include the 10,777 active pensioners in the island province who will have to do the same, with the assistance of their companions, to comply with the proof of life requirement dubbed Annual Pensioners Information Revalidation (APIR) and other transactions.
Upon downloading the app and registration, GSIS will send a one-time personal identification number to the pensioner’s email listed in the GSIS database to register.
The app has a facial recognition feature for APIR, making it seamless and convenient for pensioners to update their status without physically going to the GSIS.
Launched during the height of the pandemic in 2020 with an initial user base of 37,144 that grew to 1,095,452, the GSIS Touch enables users to generate tentative computations, apply for loans and claims and keep track of their premium remittances and loan payments.
It also caters to modern security needs, offering biometric login options such as fingerprint or facial recognition for users with smartphones with biometrics feature.
Its Facial Recognition feature, allowing old-age and disability pensioners to complete their annual “proof-of-life” (APIR) through their smartphones, eliminates the need for them to leave their homes and visit GSIS branches for the APIR process.