Indigent senior citizens receive social pensions

By Marcelo M. Pedalino

Friday 20th of July 2012

MAASIN CITY, Southern Leyte, July 20 (PIA) -- The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) regional office distributed on Wednesday the pension of indigent senior citizens covering the third and last quarter of 2011, the year the social pension program was implemented.

Social Welfare Assistant Marissa Nartea said Wednesday’s cash roll-out held inside the compound of the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) in Barangay Tagnipa was the second done so far here in the city.

Nartea, who was the focal person of the day’s activity, said there are 143 municipalities and cities in the region covered by the social pension program involving 14,000 elderlies. She was unable to cite the number for the Southern Leyte province as the records were not in her possession during her interview with the Philippine Information Agency (PIA).

She said the cash assistance for 2012 is now being processed, adding that she had been to other places in the province like Hinunangan, Hinundayan, Sogod, and San Juan.

She said beneficiaries were selected based on the National Household Targeting System (NHTS) validated at the local level.

For Maasin City, the target beneficiaries stood at 135 but out of this number 99 were validated while the other 36 were replacements, said Fe Diola, focal person for senior citizens.

The 36 who have qualified will also receive their respective shares retroactive from January 2011, Nartea said.

Lola Ising, 82, quietly sat in one of the chairs here Wednesday, waiting for her turn to be called. She lives alone in Barangay Lib-og and said she was grateful for being included in the program as the quarterly assistance she got greatly helped her with basic needs.

Lola Ising’s five children have families of their own and are living in other places, except for one with no permanent income and whose house was just a stone’s throw from hers, so she never failed to come to the OSCA every time she was informed of the good news.

Her sentiment was shared by the other 99 recipients in the city of the Aquino government’s social pension program for the elderly who have no regular support from siblings and who have no SSS or GSIS pensions to rely on.

Nartea said the social pension will continue for as long as the beneficiary is alive and remains qualified upon regular monitoring, while those who have died will be replaced. (EOT/MMP,PIA8-Southern Leyte)