DOF, DBM asked to ensure funding for doubled pension of 4M elderly
ASENIOR lawmaker on Sunday appealed to the Department of Finance (DOF) and Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to exert their “optimum effort” in looking for enough funds to carry out fully beginning this year a new amendatory law doubling to P1,000 the monthly social pension of more than 4 million indigent elderly Filipinos.
Camarines Sur Rep. Lray F. Villafuerte also asked the DOF and DBM to ensure the sustainability of this subsidy increase in 2023 at least—as provided for in the new measure that lapsed into law under Republic Act (RA) 11916.
“We are appealing to the DOF and DBM to apply their optimum effort in rummaging for funds in the national government’s available appropriations for the remainder of 2022 or to realign accessible outlays in the national budget to fund the increase in the monthly pension of senior citizens from P500 to the adjusted amount of P1,000 as set by RA 11916,” Villafuerte said.
A co-author of RA 11916 that mandates the pension hike to the elderly, Villafuerte also asked members of the House of Representatives and Senate to “make sure that the Marcos administration has the wherewithal to bankroll this pension hike for indigent Filipino seniors in the coming year by making it a point to tuck in the sufficient amount for this purpose in the proposed GA A for 2023, in support of the social welfare agenda of the President.”
“it will be too bad,” he said, “if RA 11916, which Malacañang has allowed to lapse into law, will end up being a great but unfunded program because the DOF and DBM had failed to identify funds for its implementation, even if indigent senior Filipinos are among the sectors in dire need of state subsidies to help them cope with soaring commodity prices and palliate the economic scarring caused by Covid-19.”
RA 11916 amended RA 7432 that provided for a universal social pension for elderly Filipinos and R A 9994 that granted additional benefits and privileges to senior citizens.
Villafuerte said the DOF and DBM face this tough task together as the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) was reported last week as requesting for additional funds for its cash aid program, as the P10 billion, thus far released to the DSWD, is insufficient for its targeted subsidies for different sectors.
Social Welfare Assistant Secretary Rommel M. Lopez said the DBM and DOF need to provide more funds because the fund released so far for this Department—around P10 billion—is not enough.
Villafuerte said the implementation of targeted subsidies is a must amid the pandemic-driven economic crunch as Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan himself said the release of such cash aid to low-income families cushions the effect on them of the high prices of oil and other commodities.
For her part, Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said government economic managers would study the proposed measures on targeted cash transfers and “come up with a position at the right time. We will have to thoroughly study these bills first to get the magnitude and if it’s consistent with the administration’s priority programs. We will be in close coordination with the rest of the members of the economic team—what we can do to respond to requested budget requirements, such as those created due to the enactment of new laws.”
The law-mandated doubling of the monthly subsidy for the elderly will cost the government roughly P50 billion annually, given that there are already 4 million-plus beneficiaries and there will be a significant number of Filipinos who have turned or will turn 60 years old this and will hence be eligible for inclusion in this social pension program.
Under this new law, private enterprises that will employ senior citizens as employees, upon the effectivity of this Act, shall be entitled to an additional deduction from their gross income, equivalent to 15 percent of the total amount paid as salaries and wages to these elderly workers, subject to the provisions of the national internal Revenue Code, as amended, Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte added that the law provides, though, that for these private employers to avail of this tax break, such employment shall continue for a period of at least 6 months, and that the annual income of these senior citizens do not exceed the latest poverty threshold as published by the Philippine Statistics Authority for that year.
He said the new law provides for other release or distribution options for the pension other than a cash payout, the transaction fee of which will no longer be charged to the beneficiary-seniors.