DSWD to lead signing of rules for Centenarians Act

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will lead tomorrow the ceremonial signing of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Centenarians Act of 2016, which will give P100,000 cash gift to Filipinos who reached the age of 100.

But the national government has no fund for the centenarian’s cash gifts in this year’s budget and even in the 2017 budget despite the enactment of the legislation.

Sen. Ralph Recto, author of the Centenarians Act, yesterday said that it is understandable that there is no allocation for the centenarians’ cash gifts in this year’s budget because former president Benigno Aquino III signed the law just seven days before he stepped down from office. “Nobody is at fault here.”

But he lamented that the proposed P3.35-trillion national budget for 2017 still has no item for the implementation of the Centenarians Act.

Recto said the Duterte administration should do something about this so that the law could be implemented and the centenarians would have something more to celebrate.

He pointed out that the DSWD has around P4 billion in savings this year from completed projects. And currently, there are 3,553 centenarians in the country based on the database of the DSWD. This would require around P355 million for the grant of the cash gift.

“For as long as the transfer complies with recent Supreme Court ruling on budget augmentation, I suggest that it should be pursued. The money can also be taken from the Contingent Fund of the President,” Recto explained.

Recto said that since the government appears to have no plan of implementing the Centenarians Act this year, it should have included a provision in the proposed 2017 national budget for this purpose. But under the proposed P129.8-billion budget of the DSWD for 2017, there is still no item for the cash gift.

Recto said he would work for the inclusion of the cash gift in DSWD’s budget during the congressional deliberations on the 2017 national budget.

If this is adopted, Recto said, the DSWD should ensure that updated data is used to determine the actual number of beneficiaries.

He noted that the 3,553 cited by DSWD could just be one-fourth of the actual number of centenarians in the country because the official 2010 Philippine population census counted 4,728 centenarians in 2010 and their number was projected to increase to 9,195 in 2013 and to 12,775 by end of 2016.

“So let us give what we could this year and the balance, including those who will turn 100 years old in 2017, let us include this in the 2017 budget,” Recto explained. – With Marvin Sy