Senators on Monday approved Senate Bill 2506 or the Act Increasing the Social Pension of Indigent Senior Citizens and Appropriating Funds Therefore on its third and final reading.
Voting 18-0, the senators approved the measure, which increases the monthly social pension of indigent senior citizens from P500 to P1,000.
Senator Joel Villanueva sponsored SB 2506, which was hurdled by the Senate a week after it was sponsored.
Aside from the increase in the monthly social pension for indigent senior citizens, the bill also provides options other than cash payout for the pension to reach the target beneficiaries.
SB 2506 also transfers the “implementation, distribution, and management of the social pension for senior citizens from the Department of Social Welfare and Development to the National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC) within a period not exceeding three years.”
Villanueva, in a GMA News report, said that “there are seniors who can no longer work and who cannot be supported by their family, or else they have no family.
SB 2506 “is a huge blessing as we have already fulfilled one of our campaign promises even before our new Senate term started,” the senator said.
Villanueva recalled his meeting with senior citizens during his reelection campaign, where most of them emphasized that the current monthly pension of P500 is not enough as this only goes to their maintenance medicines.
“The prices of basic goods have increased so it is just right to increase the monthly social pension of indigent senior citizens from ₱500 to ₱1,000,” Villanueva said.
In addition to increasing the monthly social pension for indigent senior citizens from P500 to P1,000, the bill also provides options other than cash payout for the pension to reach the target beneficiary. The transaction fee, if any, shall not be charged to the beneficiary.
The ₱1,000 social pension is the least we can give them,” he added.
The bill also transfers the implementation, distribution, and management of the social pension for senior citizens from the DSWD to the National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC) within a period not exceeding three years.