DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The Department of Social Welfare and Development in Davao Region (DSWD-XI) is eyeing to complete by June this year the cleaning of the list of social pensioners under its program Social Pension Program for Indigent Senior Citizens (SPISC).
SPICS is monthly additional government assistance to indigent senior citizens aimed to augment their daily subsistence and medical needs.
Pensioners receive PHP500 monthly stipend under the program. It started in 2011 through the Republic Act 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.
“We are now more than 50% complete and we are hopeful to finish this by June,” said DSWD-XI regional director Mercidita Jabagat in an interview.
Jabagat said DSWD secretary Rolando Bautista has a standing order not to proceed with a payout if we do not complete the cleaning of our listing.
She added that they received many complaints about their listing that prompted them to conduct revalidation.
“The problem with our social pension is that there are many claims (but) they are not in the list for the social pensions while there are double pensioners included (in our list),” Jabagat clarified.
Through the revalidation process, they have also found out that some social pensioners receive pension from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Social Security System (SSS), and the Armed Forces and Police Mutual Benefit Association Inc. or AFPMBAI.
DSWD-XI is also cross-checking whether social pensioners get regular support from family members.
“We also get conduct collateral information. We also verify reports from the community so that we can revalidate our list for social pensioners,” Jabagat said.
She added that they would change their payout system for social pension from quarterly to semestral.
With the election ban, DSWD-XI will postpone the downloading of funds to the local government, particularly to the City Social Services and Development Office (CSSDO) in Davao City and will conduct the payout themselves after the completion of the cleaning of listing in June (davaotoday.com)
