First lady leads social pension payout

FIRST lady Marie Louise “Liza” Araneta-Marcos and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rexlon “Rex” Gatchalian led the ceremonial payout of the higher social pension for poor senior citizens on Friday at the DSWD Central Office in Batasan, Quezon City.

The initial batch of indigent seniors from Quezon City received their payout, marking the culmination of the DSWD’s 73rd founding anniversary.

Secretary Gatchalian pointed out that the social pension payout for the elderly is the Marcos administration’s way of acknowledging the important contribution of senior citizens in their particular families and society as a whole.

“I know that many of you, despite your age, continue to put food on the table, persistently working to provide for the needs of your families. Above all, I am aware that many of you are the ones raising your grandchildren because your children are busy with work,” Gatchalian said in Filipino.

“These are the stories of sacrifices that we want to honor today,” he added.

Secretary Gatchalian expressed his gratitude to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the first lady for prioritizing the welfare of senior citizens as part of the current administration’s Bagong Pilipinas initiatives.

“In ‘Bagong Pilipinas,’ you can rest assured that our senior citizens are our priority. You will never be left behind,” Gatchalian said.

The first lady and the DSWD secretary personally gave out social pensions to 250 poor senior citizens from various villages in Quezon City for the first semester of 2024, totaling P6,000.

Republic Act 11916, also known as an “Act Increasing the Social Pension of Indigent Senior Citizens,” which became law in July 2022, offers a 100 percent increase in impoverished seniors’ monthly pensions from P500 to P1,000 to enable the vulnerable sector to cope with the effects of rising prices.

“In fact, this one thousand pesos per month is just the beginning of other programs that our President and our first lady are considering and laying out to more fully demonstrate their love for our elderly persons,” Gatchalian said.

The monthly social pension for seniors is paid to eligible beneficiaries on a semestral basis, with a total payout of P6,000 to help with their daily nutrition and other health-related expenses.

For the year 2024, the social pension program will cover 4,085,066 underprivileged senior citizens.