No more personal appearance for seniors getting pensions

MANILA, Philippines — Starting March 1, senior citizens are no longer required to personally appear before their servicing banks or government agencies to continue receiving their monthly pensions.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) issued the directive under Resolution No. 100, following discussions on steps to be undertaken in relation to quarantine reclassifications in Metro Manila and the rest of the country next month.

Banks and government institutions like the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System require a personal appearance by pensioners periodically, like during every birthday, to verify that they are still alive.

But the IATF now orders banks, government agencies and other financial institutions to provide alternative means for senior citizens to continually receive their pensions.

In cases where the pensioners are bedridden or sick, family members are allowed to provide the servicing agencies with recent photographs and statements as “proof of life.”

The measure is meant to deter unlawful use of the pensioners’ accounts or automated teller machine cards, which happened in the past even if the actual pensioners already passed away.

“To ensure the health and safety of senior citizen pensioners as well as their continuous access to their pensions during the state of a national public health emergency, pension-issuing agencies and their servicing banks, quasi-banks and other financial institutions are mandated to adopt alternative modes of validation for senior citizen pensioners in lieu of personal appearances or submission of documents that require personal appearances before a notary public, after the necessary public consultations with their respective stakeholders,” the IATF said in its resolution.

Signed by Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, the IATF said the relevant government agencies shall issue the corresponding memorandum circulars for the implementation of the foregoing by March 1, 2021.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque Jr. said the government needed to work on a balance in ensuring the health of senior citizens, among the most vulnerable sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Of course, this is for the safety of our senior citizens from COVID-19,” Roque said in Filipino. “We all know that they are the most vulnerable to COVID-19. This is to ensure their health and safety.”

Areas under general community quarantine or GCQ still do not allow senior citizens or those above 60 years old to go out of their residences unless they are covered by exemptions under the Allowed Persons Outside of Residence (APOR) guidelines.