GOVERNMENT-RUN pension funds should be regulated to protect the people?s money, an official said yesterday.

The Government Service and Insurance System, the Social Security System, and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, which handles money put in by migrant workers, should be regulated in the same way that the Insurance Commission is regulating insurance firms, Economic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto said.

?The Insurance Commission is doing a better job. It is ahead of the curve,? he said.

Recto cited his experience as a government worker who received only P200,000 in retirement benefits from the GSIS after working for 15 years. And P20,000 was deducted from that amount because of the fines resulting from the Senate?s delayed posting, he said.

Recto served as a congressman and a senator before joining the private sector in 2008.

He said he was surprised that his benefits amounted to only P180,000 as his monthly GSIS payments amounted to only about P3,000 a month.

Based on that rate, he said, he had invested P540,000 in monthly payments, excluding interest.

?If it happened to me, what more for the ordinary Filipinos,? he said.

Recto said the GSIS should study its benefit packages, and especially in light of the financial crisis that was hurting many Filipinos.

The GSIS was created in 1936. Its products include compulsory life insurance, optional life insurance, retirement benefits, disability benefits for work-related contingencies, and death benefits.

Recto also suggested that the GSIS and SSS provide new products for those being affected by the global financial crisis or the government?s optional retirement program.

He said a financial assistance equivalent to six months of salary would be ideal for those who had lost their jobs or were displaced by the economic downturn. Roderick T. dela Cruz