House panel wants DSWD to release indigent senior citizens' pension every 3 months

MANILA, Philippines — A House panel is calling on the Department of Social Welfare and Development to release the pension of indigent senior citizens every three months instead of every six months.

“These indigent senior citizens need financial assistance and waiting every six months to receive assistance is too long,” Rodriguez said in House Resolution No. 1047, which the House senior citizens committee approved Thursday.

The DSWD laid down in Memorandum Circular No. 4 issued in January 2019 that the release of the P500 monthly social pension would be every six months, which means that indigent senior citizens would get P3,000 per semester.

The P500 a month social pension for indigent senior citizens was mandated under Republic Act No. 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, which was designed to augment the daily subsistence and other medical needs of senior citizens.

The social pension is subject to review by Congress every two years, in consultation with the DSWD. — Xave Gregorio