House panel eyes P89-billion budget for universal pension for elderly bill

The House appropriations panel is eyeing an P89-billion allocation for the bill providing universal social pensions for senior citizens, or those aged 60 and above.

Laguna lawmaker Loreto Amante, vice chairperson of the House Committee on Senior Citizens, said that indigent senior citizens who were previously receiving social pensions under an existing law would receive P1,000 monthly, after the budget provision of the unnumbered substitute bill was approved before the House appropriations panel.

New recipients or those who are already receiving monthly pension from state-run insurance entities such as the Government Service Insurance System and Social Security System as well as military pensions, on the other hand, will initially receive a P500 monthly social pension.

“For the non-indigent, it is worth P500 for the meantime, but after five years, there will be a uniform rate of P1,000,” Amante said.

He said that to secure eligibility for the benefit, senior citizens should have a valid ID issued by the state-run Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs.

“We are looking at using bank transfer or e-wallet for this program for speedy release, but for the remote areas, this may not be applicable to the DSWD would have to go to them,” Amante said, referring to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The unnumbered substitute bill providing a universal social pension was approved by the House Committee on Senior Citizens in November 2022.

A counterpart measure in the Senate, however, is still at the committee level.

In November 2022, Department of Budget and Management official Nihal Abdulrauf told lawmakers that the universal social pension needs to double its annual budget to P92 billion based on the 2015 census of 7.9 million senior citizens.

Of the 7.9 million, 3.8 million are indigent. — BM, GMA Integrated News