By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

DESPITE their disagreements on issues about the local pension system, the Retirement Fund’s former chairman says he supports the administration’s move to terminate the agency’s contract with money manager Gabelli Funds.
Joseph Reyes, the Fund’s former board chairman, said his successor’s decision to terminate Gabelli’s services effective this month, was “okay,” adding that the money manager had been on their watch list since last year.
“I think Gabelli was given ample time to show better returns even when I was there,” Reyes told Variety.
“We’ve never lost any money from Gabelli but compared to other money managers its performance wasn’t good enough. We only had short gains,” he added.
The Fund had been Gabelli’s client since 1999. It was in charge of the local pension system’s small capital investments estimated at $30 million.
But since Gabelli was contracted, its annual output stagnated at 9 percent compared to the as high as 16 percent annual yields of other money managers.
As of the end of last year, the Retirement Fund’s total investment portfolio in the international and U.S. stock markets was valued at $470 million.
But its assets still fell short of fully financing the lifetime pensions of government retirees, many of whom are vested in the old, defined benefits system.
“There is still no money coming in. The Fund lives through its investment gains,” said Reyes.
The current administration has enacted a law allowing it to legally suspend remitting regular contributions to the Fund through this fiscal year.