The Government Service Insurance System has a new acting chairperson — and he's walking into a storm.

Finance Secretary Frederick Go swore in veteran lawyer Ricardo "Ric" Blancaflor on Tuesday, June 9, at the Department of Finance headquarters. Blancaflor replaces Rodolfo del Rosario Jr. as the head of the GSIS Board of Trustees.

The appointment comes at a critical moment for the state pension fund. In October 2025, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he was reviewing calls to replace GSIS President and General Manager Wick Veloso and other top executives over supposed anomalous investments in Alternergy Holdings Corporation and gaming giant DigiPlus.

Veloso has since said the GSIS will sell its stake in both companies once the market improves.

The Department of Finance said Blancaflor's role is to "guide GSIS in strengthening fund sustainability, enhancing member services, and advancing its mandate of providing responsive and reliable social insurance benefits to government employees and pensioners."

Blancaflor isn't a stranger to high-pressure government roles. He's widely recognized for his previous tenure as director general of the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines in 2010. During that time, IPOPHL was completely delisted from the United States Trade Representative's Special 301 Watchlist — a report that identifies trading partners failing to protect intellectual property rights.

He also spearheaded the country's accession to the Madrid Protocol, a treaty that lets trademark owners secure protection across 120 countries through a single application.

Before his IPOPHL stint, Blancaflor served as an undersecretary at the Department of Justice, where he chaired the anti-trafficking council. During the Arroyo administration, he also served as a defense undersecretary and spokesperson of the Anti-Terrorism Council.

Now, Blancaflor faces the challenge of restoring confidence in a pension fund that millions of government employees rely on. The GSIS manages the retirement savings of state workers, and any instability in its investments raises questions about the safety of those funds.

The investment scandal involving Alternergy and DigiPlus has put the fund's decision-making under scrutiny. Critics have questioned whether the GSIS leadership exercised proper due diligence before pouring money into those companies.

Blancaflor's legal and regulatory background — particularly his experience cleaning up IPOPHL's international standing — suggests the government is prioritizing credibility and compliance. But whether that'll be enough to calm worried pensioners isn't clear yet.

For now, Blancaflor steps into the acting chair role with a mandate to steady the ship. The next few months will show whether he can deliver.