Mindanaotoday.com | OSCA head exposes social pension woes
By: Uriel Quilinging
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The list of beneficiaries under the Social Pension Program for Indigent Senior Citizens (SPPISC) must be cleansed so that all would-be recipients are legitimate and they directly benefit from the financial assistance.
Retired Police Col. Honorio Cervantes, Office of Senior Citizens Affairs head in Cagayan de Oro, said these in a Meet the Press forum on Wednesday, May 3, as local journalists join the observance of World Press Freedom Day observance.
There are recipients, he said, who use luxury cars in claiming social pensions and reside in subdivisions, even retirees from government and private companies.
He said he sympathizes with retirees who receive only about P500 monthly pension from the Social Security System, saying these senior citizens need financial assistance too, but the law excludes them from the SPPISC.
Cervantes said that being a government service retiree himself, he is disqualified from availing of the social pension which is under the Department of Social Welfare and Development, but the City Social Welfare Development prepares the list of beneficiaries.
Politics, he said, creeps in once listing is done and CSWD must do the explaining. Cagayan de Oro has more than 92,000 card-bearing members.
Village officials and village senior citizens groups, who are also involved in the profiling and screening of social pension recipients, must also lay down their cards.
Because of this, the former city police director said he welcomes the full transfer of all DSWD functions, programs, projects, and activities relative to senior citizens to the National Commission on Senior Citizens (NCSC), as provided for under Republic Act No.11350.
SPPISC, along with the Centenarian Gift, Assistance to Older Persons with Disabilities, and Residential Care Facilities which are with the DSWD, and corresponding budgetary allocations, would be transferred to the NCSC (Rule 10 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of R.A. 11350).
Still P500 monthly
In the same forum, Cagayan de Oro’s OSCA head clarified that the monthly social pension from the DSWD is still P500, contrary to reports that the amount has increased to P1,000.
This, even after former Pres. Rodrigo Duterte signed into law on July 30, 2022 Republic Act No. 11916, Increasing the Social Pension of Indigent Senior Citizens.
Section 5 (h) of R.A, 11916 states: “Indigent senior citizens shall be entitled to a monthly stipend amounting to not less than P1,000 to augment the daily subsistence and other medical needs” and that this would be reviewed, for possible adjustment, every two years after the effectivity of the said law.
Meanwhile, Cervantes said if there are senior citizens associations giving P1,000 during payouts, then they must have sourced the additional amount somewhere.
He said the additional amount is not in the General Appropriations Act of 2023.
A brochure which DSWD-10 spokesperson Oliver Inodeo, shared online showed that the legal basis for the P500 monthly stipend was Republic Act No. 9994, the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.
Payouts are to be done every six months, the amount then would be P3,000.
But only for those who have no pension, permanent source of income, work, or financial assistance from family members.
Sense of civic duty
Other than these concerns, Cervantes said there are those in the list who do not benefit from the financial assistance, after their social pensions are claimed by family members.
Cervantes said he had personally witnessed one, authorized by an ailing senior citizen to claim the three-month pension, buying liquor after the payout.
Having served as chapter president of senior citizens in Canitoan village for 13 years, prior to his appointment as OSCA head, he knows who among the chapter officials who are there to serve others.
He said there are pending cases, involving social pension payouts.
“For me, it’s easier to perform as city police director, than as OSCA head,” he said, anticipating some may dislike his way of instilling discipline, respect of elders, and sense of civic duty.
Also, if he has his way, he said would rather grant the Centennial Gift of P100,000 while the beneficiary is still healthy, could walk and talk clearly, and could eat anything that he wishes.
He said his appointment as OSCA head came as a surprise because he was second in the balloting among chapter presidents. (MT)
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