National budget for pension of indigents up to P18B

CEBU, Philippines - The budget of the national government's pension for indigent senior citizens will increase by more than double next year, which would allow the enrolment of an additional 1.6 million senior citizens to a program that grants a cash aid of P6,000 each year.

Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto, who lobbied for the expansion of the program, welcomed the budget hike but calls for the reduction of the seven percent administrative cost ceiling so that more seniors can be included.

Recto, in a statement, said that from P8.7 billion this year, the program's budget will shoot up to P18 billion, towing up the number of beneficiaries from 1.382 million to 2.995 million.

The budget is lodged in the appropriations of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, which runs the program.

Recto said that if the funding hike will be approved by Congress, 2017 will be the third straight year that the budget for the seniors' pension will be increased.

"It will have the highest and the fastest increase among government social programs, a six-fold increase from P3.1 billion in 2014. It is an impressive trajectory. This is one program which has been put on steroids," Recto said.

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, sponsored by former  Senator Pia Cayetano.

Recto said that those qualified to receive the stipend are senior citizens who are frail, sickly, or have disabilities; are not receiving pension from the Social Security System, Government Service Insurance System or veteran's pension; and do not have a permanent source of income or regular support from relatives.

The pension is said to be distributed every quarter through cash payment in DSWD field offices or city or municipal social welfare and development offices.

For the 2015 budget, Recto and then Senate Finance Committee chair Senator Chiz Escudero worked to increase the program's budget by P1 billion, to P5.9 billion, allowing the DSWD to take in almost a million beneficiaries.

For the 2016 budget, Recto, who chaired the Senate Finance subcommittee in charge of the DSWD budget, sponsored the increase in funding from the proposed P7.5 billion to P8.7 billion.

Recto urges DSWD and its partner agencies to implement the program without kinks or delays.

Recto further said that by increasing the budget for this program, the country is embracing the idea that all indigent seniors 60 years old and above must be covered by the proposed allocation, adopting the policy of "No Senior Left Behind." (FREEMAN)