Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte on Monday appealed to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to source out enough funds in the national budget to be able to enforce this year the law mandating the law doubling to P1,000 the monthly pension of the country’s over four million indigent senior citizens.
“In the face of the still elevated inflation, the doubling of the P500 monthly pension of our indigent elderly Filipinos to P1,000, as provided for in a new law, will spell added financial relief for these seniors who have to contend with the endlessly spiralling cost of living,” Villafuerte said.
The Bicolano lawmaker was one of the lead proponents of Republic Act (RA) 11916 that doubled their monthly pension of the elderlies from P500 to P1,000.
“RA 11916, which lapsed into law last July, need not end up being a great but unfunded program for the benefit of our indigent seniors who are in dire need of state subsidies to help them cope with incessantly soaring commodity prices and recover from the economic scarring caused by the nearly three-year pandemic,” Villafuerte said.
He made this appeal as Franklin Quijano, chairman and chief executive officer of the National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC), dismissed a report that the NCSC is handing out the higher monthly stipend of P1,000 to all of the 12.2 million senior citizens in the country.
The NCSC said in a February statement that only the indigent 4.1 million among the 12.2 million elderly Filipinos have been receiving and will continue to receive the monthly pension, and that the stipend was pegged at P500 per month and not P1,000.
“The agency clarified that only select indigent senior citizens, 4.1 million out of 12.2 million, receive P500 social pension per month and will be doubled by virtue of RA 11916, as soon as it gets funding from the DBM,” said the Commission in the statement.
Villafuerte, president of the National Unity Party, expressed hopes that, the DBM would be able to “scour the 2023 GAA (General Appropriations Act) and other possible sources for enough funds to bankroll the 100 percent-increase in the monthly pension of indigent seniors, in the same way that the Department had managed to ferret out a sufficient outlay to finance Malacañang’s extended targeted cash transfer (TCT) project for the poorest families.”
The Palace’s economic managers earlier said the government is set to distribute this month P9.3 billion-worth of cash assistance under this extended TCT project to 9.3 million households considered most vulnerable to the economic shock of the still elevated inflation, driven mainly by the rocketing prices of certain foodstuff and the high cost of fuel in the global market.
RA 11916 amended RA 7432 which provided for a universal social pension for the elderly Filipinos, and RA 9994 which granted additional benefits and privileges to the senior citizens.