- A senatorial candidate pushes for a 100% increase in indigent senior citizens’ monthly stipend
- Pasig City Representative Roman Romulo said the raise is long overdue
- The national government needs to spend P20 billion every year to fund the allowance increase
Pasig City Representative Roman Romulo pushed for a 100 percent increase in indigent senior citizens’ monthly allowance.
Romulo, a senatorial candidate in the May 2016 elections, said the raise is long overdue.
Under the Expanded Senior Citizens Law of 2010, the P500 monthly allowance given to poverty-stricken senior citizens is supposed to be reviewed by Congress every two years for a possible increase, but it has not done so for the last six years.
“Congress is supposed to review the allowance for poverty-stricken seniors every two years for a possible upward adjustment. Congress has not bumped up the pension in the last six years,” Romulo said.
The lawmaker from the lone district of Pasig City proposed that the destitute senior citizens’ P500 monthly or P6,000 a year be raised to P1,000 a month or P12,000 a year.
He said the Congress should pass a joint Senate-House of Representatives resolution providing for a 100 percent increase in the monthly allowance of the indigent senior citizens.
“A monthly grant of at least P1,000 will serve as a bigger helping hand to extremely deprived seniors who have absolutely no one else to turn to for financial aid,” Romulo said.
The law defines indigent senior citizens as Filipinos who are sixty years old and above without regular pension from the Social Security System or the Government Service Insurance System or lacking permanent source of income, compensation, or regular and appropriate financial assistance from relatives.
Charissa Luci mentioned in her article for Manila Bulletin dated March 26, 2016 that all destitute senior citizens should be enrolled in the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens Program (SPISCP).
To fund the proposed 100 percent increase in the poor senior citizens’ stipend, the national government needs to spend P20 billion every year for the SPISCP. At present, the government spends P10 billion for the program.
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