Cagayan de Oro — Indigent senior citizens aged 65 years old and above are now qualified to receive stipend from the Department of Social Welfare and Development. DSWD Regional Director Atty. Araceli F. Solamillo recently announced that because of this effect, more than 39,000 indigent senior citizens in the region will now be receiving P500.00 from the DSWD on a monthly basis for their needs such as medicines.

DSWD however emphasizes that senior citizens qualified for the said stipend are those who are not recipients of any other social insurance benefits such as that from SSS or GSIS.

Having heard the public’s concern that the amount for the indigent senior citizens are too minimal, Solamillo explains that the DSWD is continuously lobbying with legislators for bigger slice from the national budget so that the Social Pension provided for indigent senior citizens will be increased and the age coverage expanded.

Qualified beneficiaries of the Social Pension are those identified under the Listahanan, formerly known as the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction – a system that identifies who and where the poor are in the Philippines.

The Social Pension is one of the provisions under Section 5 of Republic Act 9994 otherwise known as the “Expanded Senior Citizen Act of 2010.”