Suspended chief says GSIS' billions-worth of investments have yielded gains
GSIS invested P1.4. billion in Alternergy—an investment currently under being investigated by the Ombudsman, and for which Veloso was suspended—and P1 billion in Digiplus, which was made public by Senator Risa Hontiveros in a privilege speech.
'The management is given permission to invest in listed equities in the stock market or bonds or debt instruments at an amount of P1.5 billion. Hindi ho kailangan dumaan sa board [It didn't need to go through the board]," said Veloso of the Alternergy investment in a Super Radyo DZBB interview.
"Based on our guidelines, the equity must be listed [in the Philippine Stock Exchange] and what we purchased was preferred share. Naniniwala po kami na sumunod po kami sa reglamento.'
(We believe we followed all regulations.)
Veloso said that the Alternergy investment had resulted in P117 million in terms of dividends in the first year. 'That is renewable energy investment and its rate of return of investment is 56% within five years,' he said.
On Digiplus, Veloso said that the GSIS, upon careful study, took advantage of the low price of Digiplus' stock, and that the company's share has been growing since GSIS invested in 2023. He, however, did not give an exact amount of how much the government gained from this investment.
'The [value] of its stock is just P7, P8 when GSIS started purchasing them. Kumita na rin tayo doon. Kumita po. Tapos tuwing may magandang balita na lumalabas po diyan, nagdadagdag po tayo ng investment. So habang umaakyat po yung presyo niya, nagdadagdag ang GSIS ng investment,' Veloso said.
(The government gained from this, really. And every time that the company thrives, we invest more.)
'Then in June [2025], there was a research material that they can be placed under index stocks of the Philippine Stock Exchange, and that its stock prices can rise to P109 due to their expansion in other countries such as Brazil and South Africa. We thought since the price is not that high yet, let's take a chance on investing in this,' Veloso added.
Veloso, however, said recent calls for banning online gambling was a volatility that they did not see coming.
'Just one and a half week after [the June research material], the talk on the total ban on online gambling cropped up. Wala naman po sa equation 'yan [when we made the investment]. That's volatility. Because when we invest, we do not invest with a long-term view,' Veloso added.
(The possibility of total ban on online gambling was not present when we first made the investment.)
Veloso said that the GSIS' investment in Digiplus was a minuscule part of the entire GSIS fund and that the GSIS has been steadily growing since he led the agency in 2022.
'This is just 0.13% of the whole GSIS portfolio. And since I came on board, I was able to add P300 billion [to the GSSIS fund] so it is now up to P1.88 trillion. For the first six months of 2025 alone, we earned P77 billion net,' Veloso said.
'Iyan po ang patunay na totoong intact ang pondo. Kaya kami [ay] naniniwala na ito ay nasa tamang proseso,' Veloso added.
(These figures prove that the GSIS fund is intact, and so we believe that these investments are all above board.) — BM, GMA Integrated News
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