30K seniors yet to get cash grant under Expanded Centenarian Act —NCSC

Around 30,000 senior citizens are yet to get their benefit under the Expanded Centenarian Act, which grants a P100,000 cash payout to those who reached 100 years old and P10,000 to those who reached 80, 85, 90, and 95 years old, the National Commission for Senior Citizens (NCSC) said Tuesday.

The NCSC, which is asking for a P3.6 billion budget for 2026, made the disclosure via its proposed 2026 budget sponsor and Senior Citizens party-list Rodolfo Ordanes during the questioning of Kabataan party-list Rep. Renee Co.

“For 2024, we have 30,000 beneficiaries of the Expanded Centenarian Act which are yet to get their payouts. But the payout for them is scheduled by the end of October, included in the P750 million that will be used for the payout of beneficiaries for year 2025,” Ordanes said.

“Ahead of October, we already paid out 11,536 beneficiaries of the law under the year 2024, which is worth P121 million,” Ordanes added.

For 2025 beneficiaries, Ordanes also said that the agency has been able to disburse P1.1 billion out of the P2.9 billion for the law.

Co then asked the agency if it can settle the backlog of 2024 payouts within the year, to which Ordanes replied, “Yes. We have enough budget, and we will be able to pay them out.”

Still, Co said the agency should ensure that there will be no further delays on payouts.

“A lot of senior citizens are waiting for the rollout of the cash grant from the Expanded Centenarian Act. They have been waiting for a year for this, and we hope that they will get what they are due as soon as possible,” Co said. —VAL, GMA Integrated News