This photo of an old man begging in a street in Davao City was taken in 2013. (davaotoday.com file photo by Ace Morandante)
DAVAO CITY — The government’s social pension program for indigent senior citizens this year has increased by P3 billion, which will increase the numbers of beneficiaries by almost half a million.
Senator Ralph Recto on Sunday, March 27 said more senior citizens will start getting a P6,000 yearly pension from the government this year after the budget for the government’s social pension program for indigent senior citizens jumped to Php8.7 billion this year from Php5.7 billion last year, thereby increasing the number of recipients from 939,609 to 1,382,941.
Recto is now calling for the expeditious enrollment of the 443,332 new beneficiaries, saying that “such disbursement of funds must be exempt from underspending.”
He also urged the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to cut the red tape and speed up all the required paper work “so that qualified beneficiaries will start getting their checks.”
The distribution of a P500 monthly pension – or P6,000 yearly – to indigent seniors is made pursuant to Republic Act No. 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.
Recto chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Finance, which has oversight of the budget of the DSWD, which runs the program.
Malacañang originally sought P7.5 billion for the program for 2016 but after Recto’s review, and lobbying by seniors’ rights advocacy groups, it emerged that at that funding level at least 200,000 seniors will not be covered.
Upon Recto’s motion, the funding was increased by P1.2 billion to P8.7 billion, the amount authorized in the General Appropriations Act for 2016.
Qualified to receive the P500 monthly stipend under the law are senior citizens who are frail, sickly, or have disabilities; are not receiving pension from Social Security System (SSS), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), or Veterans Pension; and do not have a permanent source of income or regular support from relatives. (davaotoday.com)
