By Annabel Consuelo Petinglay/PNA
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will start its validation of elderlies in Antique who are beneficiaries of the social pension on March 26.
Ritchie Zaragoza, DSWD Program Development Officer I, said in an interview Monday that the validation aims to find out how many beneficiaries are still eligible to receive the pension.
“There are validators who have been hired by the DSWD who will conduct the community assemblies where the validation of beneficiaries will be held,” she said.
She said six validators were tapped by the DSWD to do the validation for the next 20 days in the 18 towns of the province.
The validators will start their work after making a courtesy call on local chief executives in the municipalities of Laua-an where there are 2,552 beneficiaries; Bugasong – 2,763 beneficiaries; Belison – 890 beneficiaries; San Jose de Buenavista – 1,006 beneficiaries, and Tobias Fornier – 2,236 beneficiaries.
The validation, she said will find out if the elderlies are still alive “or if their economic situation have already improved”.
Zaragoza said the social pension is intended for indigent elderlies and the DSWD wants to find out if they have economically stable children who are taking care of them.
Antique has a total of 40,440 beneficiaries who are 60 years old and above. They receive PHP500 per month or PHP1,500 every quarter from the national government through the DSWD.
Every quarter, DSWD releases PHP60.66 million for the social pension in Antique.
The cash grant is intended to help the elders purchase their basic needs such as food, milk and medicines.
The program started in 2011 under Republic Act 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.
