How often do you get invited to lunch with a chairman of the board in the chairman’s office?

As I am not a member of the Government Service Insurance Corp. (GSIS), I felt that the invitation was, in a way, even more special. So I told the newly appointed chairman, who received news of his appointment by PBBM via a text message on his cellphone more than two months ago, yes, I’m free to join you and the rest of the gang.

The gang being a most “private” group — we are members of the Social Security System (SSS), the opposite number of GSIS — it turned out that like me, everybody else was curious to see what GSIS looked like from the inside. Without further ado, Chairman Blancaflor assured me that, yes, GSIS members — government workers all — receive more benefits than SSS members. Even though there are more SSS than GSIS members! Meanwhile, it should be possible for Atty. Blancaflor, who runs a private law office, to keep his SSS membership.

GSIS occupies a five-story building on a nice piece of property on Roxas Blvd., between Manila and Pasay City or between Pasay City and Parañaque, I’m not sure. The structure, architecturally speaking, is a complete departure from what the towering SSS building looks like in Quezon City, which is almost my next-door neighbor. At any rate, what’s interesting about GSIS as a building is that from the outside it doesn’t look like a government property. A mid-rise nestling in the shade of some old trees, the five-story edifice exudes a relaxed, even friendly air.

Lunch with Chairman Rick Blancaflor turned out to be chicken soup, a green salad, steamed fish, Shanghai lumpia, pinakbet, with Coke on the side. I was told by one of his assistants that they have a cafeteria downstairs, which was probably where our meal came from.

Somewhere in the building there’s a GSIS museum, but to do it justice we would have to come back another time.

In the meantime, “Tanglaw” is a year-old, 394-page book that I cannot lift with one hand, but it should tempt artists and art lovers to visit the GSIS Museo ng Sining Collection. The book contains reproductions of masterpieces by the — what else? — masters who matter.