DAVAO CITY (PIA) – Around 7,590 poor senior citizens across the region will soon benefit from a social pension program entitling them to a monthly stipend of P500 to augment their daily subsistence and medical needs.
The figure forms part of the 145,166 targeted indigent elderly citizens nationwide who will benefit from the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens program implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) starting January this year.
DSWD Regional Director Porfiria M. Bernardez of the Cordillera Administrative Region said the agency allots P871 million for this programto cater to the national target which, she said, is only 14 percent of the country’s 1,043,745 senior citizens aged 60 years old and above.
“Hindi malayo ang patutunguhan ng P500 (P500 can’t go far), but this can help our poor elderly persons,” Bernardez said.
She said the payout will be released in a quarterly basis starting March this year.
Bernardez was part of a DSWD team making rounds in Mindanao to conduct orientation and workshop on the guidelines of the social pension program given to the Officers of the City/Municipal Social Welfare and Development (C/MSWDO) and the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA).
Republic Act No. 9994 or the “Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010” provides for additional benefits and privileges for senior citizens such as the social pension that gives P500 monthly stipend for the indigent elderly persons, Bernardez said.
She said that through DSWD National Household Targetting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR), the agency has enlisted indigent senior citizens aging 77 years old and above who are eligible to become social pensioners.
According to Bernardez, qualified social pensioners are those who are “frail, sick or with disability, and without pension or permanent source of income or regular support from relatives to meet their basic
needs.”
She said not entitled for the pension are those “receiving pension from GSIS, SSS or AFPMBAI and other private insurance company and with permanent source of income, or regular support from relatives.”
The DSWD would still have to validate before end of this month the identified potential social pensioners at the city and municipal level before the agency could fully implement the program. –Manila Bulletin
World Day for Safety and Health at Work
“Safety and health at work every day!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government
(NUG) of Myanmar.
Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideos
Monthly Observances:
March – Women’s Role in History Month
April – Month of Planet Earth
Weekly Observances:
Last Week of March: Protection and Gender Fair Treatment of the Girl Child Week
Last Week of April – World Immunization Week
Daily Observances:
Mar 25 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transallantic Slave Trade
Mar 27– Earth Hour
Apr 21 – Civil Service Day
Apr 22 – World Earth Day
Apr 28 – World Day for Safety and Health at Work
