By PNA
ILOILO CITY — Starting this year, the release of pension for the elderly will be held twice a year from the previous quarterly distribution, the director of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) 6 (Western Visayas).
“We will have it twice a year and our target month for the first release is in April. Then the second will be in September,” Evelyn B. Macapobre said Friday.
The change in the system is due to lack of ample time for the field office to complete the cleansing of their database before paying the pensioners, Macapobre said.
“This is very important to ensure that the money goes to the deserving because we have many beneficiaries. Some are complaining like why this someone is a beneficiary when there is someone less fortunate than him,” she explained.
The first three months of the year is intended for the updating of the beneficiary list and cleaning of the data list.
There is also a directive from President Rodrigo R. Duterte that the DSWD field offices should no longer transfer the funds for the pensioners to local government units.
“Directly, DSWD will have to pay (the pensioners) according to the President”, she added.
Currently, DSWD-6 has only 100 plus regular employees and Macapobre said they will have a difficult time distributing the payment if it will be held quarterly.
In relation to the data cleansing, the field office is waiting for the authority to hire from the national office.
“We have limited staff. We are hiring validators (for the data). We are only waiting for the authority to hire but the hiring would be a short time because our target is to finish (data cleansing) before the end of March,” Macapobre said.
In 2018, a total a of PHP2,022,093,000 was given to 365,971 pensioners in the region.
A total of 365,908 pensioners are on this year’s target list to include 45,826 from Aklan, 40,440 from Antique, 54,953 from Capiz, 14,643 from Guimaras, 160,634 from Iloilo, and 49,412 from Negros Occidental.
This year, PHP2,195,448,000 will be distributed to qualified pensioners.
The Social Pension Program for indigent senior citizens aims to improve their condition by giving them subsidies they can use for their daily and medical needs. It also aims to reduce hunger and protect the elderly from neglect, abuse, deprivation, and natural and man-made disasters.
To avail of the pension program, the elderly must be at least 60 years old, a Filipino citizen, frail, sickly or with a disability, has no regular income or support from his family or relatives, and does not have any pension from any private or government institution.
