60 centenarians in Davao Region get cash award of P100K each

DAVAO CITY—THE Davao Region has 60 centenarians who have been awarded this year the mandated cash incentive for reaching that age, the Philippine Information Agency has reported, citing data from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The Centenarians Act of 2016 says that a Letter of Felicitation signed by the President of the Philippines shall be given to the living centenarian. In addition to the Letter of Felicitation, a one time cash award of P100,000 shall be given to the living centenarian in recognition of his or her longevity.

“We recently awarded our last batch of centenarians on September 30, we have 60 centenarians that were each given P100,000 cash grant,” said Merie Diane Jane Paez, DSWD regional information officer on social marketing unit.

The DSWD said one Serapia Silvosa of Boston, Davao Oriental is the oldest recipient of the cash grant, at 107 years old.

Paez said there were centenarians whose cash incentives were delayed due to the lack of supporting documents like birth certificates.

“It took some time for them to secure documents that prove they were 100 years old. The one reason the families of centenarians cannot comply is they have difficulty getting the birth certificate, ” Paez said.

Also, many of the centenarians were migrants in Davao and were born in places such as Luzon and Visayas “thus getting their birth certificates is a difficult task,” she added. Those who were born during the Second World War have problems on securing birth certificates because official documents were either destroyed or burned.

Others have also difficulty getting birth records because they were born in remote places, or the Geographically Isolated and Disadvantaged Areas (GIDAS).

“We would just need secondary documents such as marriage certificates or birth certificates of their children,” Paez said.

She said the DSWD has also been helping the families so that “the centenarians will not have difficulty in getting their supporting documents.”

“We hope we can give them the cash grants while they [centenarians] are still alive,” Paez said.

Paez has been encouraging the family members or relatives of senior citizens who are about to centenarians to get the list of requirements and secure the needed documents “before the elderly reaches the age of 100 years old.”

“When they reach 100 years old, we can earmark the money for them,” she said.