To serve more senior ‘probinsyanos,’says Nograles
House Appropriations Committee Chair Davao Rep. Karlo “Ang Probinsyano” Nograles on Thursday said his panel is committed to increase the funding for the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Social Pension Program to expand the present coverage of the government’s pension system for indigent senior citizens so that “more of our lolos and lolas in the provinces can be given a helping hand by a grateful and compassionate government.”
“This pension is a huge help to the daily lives of elderly indigents, and I believe that we really need to expand the coverage of our pension program. Our senior citizens deserve a special place in our society. They have done their share and raised one, sometimes even two generations of our countrymen. By the time they hit their sixties, our lolos and lolas have needs, and this pension can help them meet their needs, ” Nogtales saidm
The pension worth 500 pesos monthly is provided under Republic Act (RA) No.9994, also known as the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.
But due to shortage of funds, only senior citizens who are aged 70 and above are allowed to avail of the social pension program (SPP).
Nograles said that this has to change as he noted that the expansion of the social pension program should cover those 60 years old above. As head of the appropriations committee, Nograles said that he would work doubly hard to allocate more funds for the SPP in the 2019 budget.
According to the DSWD, some 2.8 million indigent senior citizens benefited from the Social Pension Program last year from a budget of 17.1 billion pesos.
For 2018, the target beneficiaries were raised to three million indigent senior citizens thanks to an increased budget of 19.2 billion pesos. (HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES)
