593 centenarians to receive ₧100,000 cash gift this year
MANILA—THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has completed the distribution of the P100,000 longevity pay for 1,111 out of 1,704 centenarian beneficiaries as of June.
The DSWD said Tuesday that they have so far disbursed P111.1 million and the agency is set to give out the P100,000 cash gift to each of the remaining 593 centenarians within the year.
One of the most recent centenarian beneficiaries was 103-year-old Estelita Alliones from Antipolo City.
She personally went to see Secretary Erwin Tulfo at the DSWD central office in Quezon City on July 13, accompanied by her daughter and grandchild, to seek help in facilitating the release of her cash incentive.
“Based on the record of Field Office 4A [Calabarzon], initial documents of Mrs. Alliones were submitted to the Department in 2020 and were completed in March 2022,” the DSWD said in a statement.
DSWD gifted her with a wheelchair and released her P100,000 cash incentive the following day.
Republic Act 10868, otherwise known as the Centenarians Act, which was signed into law on June 23, 2016, entitles all Filipinos who reach 100 years old, whether living in the Philippines or abroad, to a “centenarian gift” worth P100,000 and a letter of felicitation from the President.
The DSWD reiterated its call to the family members of centenarians to process the application as soon as the elderly is qualified.
To avail themselves of the benefits, centenarians or their relatives must submit primary documents such as birth certificate or Philippine passport to the City or Municipal Social Welfare Office and/or to the Office for Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) in their places of residence.
“If the two documents are not available, any one of the primary Identification Cards issued by OSCA, Government Service Insurance System and Social Security System; driver’s license; Professional Regulations Commission license; and Commission on Elections voter’s identification will also be accepted. In the absence further of the aforementioned, the centenarian and/or their family members can submit any secondary documents such as marriage certificate, birth certificate of a child of the centenarian, among others,” the DSWD said.
In another development, the DSWD chief reiterated that he won’t tolerate abuses after two erring employees were meted out disciplinary actions.
The DSWD said on Tuesday that one employee assigned at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and another at the satellite office in Tagbilaran City, Bohol were relieved from their posts for inappropriate behavior.
They were also reprimanded and made to undergo retraining on proper treatment of clients, according to a DSWD news release on Tuesday.
“Instead of assisting them to make them comfortable from their travel abroad, the action of the said Naia employee toward them other and child was not in accordance with the health standards set by the inter-agency task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases for arriving m in ors,”tulfo said, without specifying what the employee violated.
The Tagbilaran City employee, on the other hand, “rudely” talked to a client who inquired about inclusion in the “Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program,” the conditional cash transfer program.
On July 7, Tulfo posted an apology on Facebook and vowed to investigate the incident.