ILOILO CITY — The national government’s one-time cash grant has already benefited some 166,520 indigent senior citizens in Western Visayas, data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) here showed.
The department has spent PHP399.6 million so far for the cash grant to the beneficiaries, Judith Tanate, focal person for Persons with Disabilities and Older Persons of DSWD 6 (Western Visayas), said in an interview Friday.
DSWD-6 began distributing the cash grants to its beneficiaries last July 25.
The grant is a tax subsidy provided under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law to help the poor cope with the rising prices of commodities.
Each qualified beneficiary is entitled to receive PHP2,400 a year or PHP200 per month. The national government is targeting to implement the unconditional cash transfer (UCT) program until 2020.
Meanwhile, the bulk of the PHP399.6 million went to 75,339 beneficiaries in Iloilo province, which amounted to PHP180.8 million.
Aklan province has PHP57.2 million for 23,839 beneficiaries; Capiz, PHP50.2 million for 20,957 beneficiaries; Antique, PHP48.8 million for 20,335 beneficiaries; Negros Occidental, PHP45.8 million for 19,093 beneficiaries; and Guimaras, PHP16.9 million for 6,957 beneficiaries.
Tanate said the 166,520 beneficiaries who received their cash grant were part of the 189,904 qualified senior citizens in the region.
She said that they are still waiting for their central office to release the remaining cash grants of more than 23,000 beneficiaries from 24 cities and towns in the different parts of the region.
Some 7,944 senior citizens in Iloilo City and 1,547 senior citizens in Bacolod City have yet to receive their cash grant.
“We are hoping that by the end of September, we will be able to release their cash grants,” she said.
Tanate said the program has been a big help to indigent senior citizens in the region, especially in buying their medicines and basic needs.
“After they receive their money, most of them immediately go to the drugstore and grocery store to buy their needs,” she said. (Cindy Ferrer/PNA)
