Proposed 2011 budget to disenfranchise seniors citizens

THE Malacañang-proposed budget for 2011 will amend the law granting P500 in monthly pension to every indigent senior citizen and disenfranchise about 850,000 of them, Sen. Ralph Recto said Friday.

He said that while the Expanded Senior Citizen Act (ESCA) provides that the monthly stipend be given to all indigent senior citizens, the government decided that only those aged 80 and above would qualify for the monthly pension.

“By raising the age requirement, the government is moving to effectively disenfranchise tens of thousands of impoverished seniors from receiving the pension,” Recto said.

He refuted the claim of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) that 4.3 million indigent seniors would receive the P500 monthly pension next year. He contended that only 145,150 would qualify with the raising of the age requirement from 60, as provided by law, to 80, as provided by the proposed 2011 budget. There are about 1 million indigent senior citizens in the country.

Malacañang has proposed a budget of P871 million for the monthly pension of indigent senior citizens which Recto described as inadequate. He has filed a bill seeking a supplemental budget of P3.5 billion.  Recto added that this is way below the P3.5 billion that he estimated was needed to benefit all poor senior citizens. He has filed a bill seeking a supplemental budget of P3.5 bilion to cover the social pension of indigent senior citizens from July to December this year. About P7 billion a year is needed to fund the pension of some 1 million senior citizens .

Recto urged the DSWD and the Department of Budget and Management to amend the criteria and allow seniors below 80 years of age to join the first batch of pension beneficiaries.

The social pension is one of the many benefits granted to senior citizens by the Expanded Senior Citizens Act or Republic Act 999. Besides from the exemption from value-added tax (VAT) coverage and the social pension, senior citizens will also receive other benefits under ESCA, including free vaccines for indigent senior citizens, death benefit assistance, educational assistance, free medical and dental services, mandatory PhilHealth coverage, and exemption from training fees for socioeconomic programs.

The law was enacted mainly to restore the original 20-percent discount of senior citizens on goods and services that had been reduced to only 8 percent because of the 12-percent expanded VAT. –EFREN L. DANAO, Manila Times