By Juancho Gallarde (PNA)
DUMAGUETE CITY — The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Region 7 has distributed PHP3.5 million worth of social pensions to 2,335 senior citizens in Dumaguete City.
The distribution was held Wednesday during a whole-day third-quarter payout at the city high school gymnasium supervised by DSWD Assistant Regional Director Shalaine Lucero.
Federation of Senior Citizens Associations of the Philippines (FSCAP) Dumaguete chapter president George Villamor said recipients of the PHP1,500 quarterly pension are senior citizens who have no family supporting them and do not have pensions from either the Social Security System (SSS) or Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).
Villamor heads the FSCAP with more than 6,000 members while Jun Dizon is president of the city Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) with more than 17,000 registered senior citizens.
Dizon disclosed only 600 slots were added as beneficiaries this year and that they are pushing for an increased allocation next year because pending applications reached more than 2,000.
He said the number of beneficiaries for this year is fixed at 2,335 and only those who died, numbering almost a hundred, could be replaced.
To be given priority as replacements are senior citizens who need help the most while plans are afoot for the FSCAP, the OSCA and DSWD to conduct actual visitation of senior citizens who are beneficiaries of the program starting next year due to complaints some of them are well-off and are supported by children who are either working abroad or gainfully employed in Dumaguete.
The house-to-house visitation will form part of a screening process for applicants of the government’s social pension for senior citizens.
This developed as OSCA head Dizon will be requesting the office of City Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo to lobby with the regional DSWD office to have additional slots for Dumaguete, justification of which is the pending 2,000 plus applicants in the waiting list.
