Tabanda pushes monthly pay for indigent seniors

By Jordan G. Habbiling

BAGUIO CITY -- Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda has proposed an ordinance seeking to provide a monthly stipend amounting to P500 to qualified indigent senior citizens in the city.
    The proposed ordinance shall create a local counterpart of the national government’s social pension program called the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens (SPIC).
    The said program has been institutionalized in compliance with Section 5 (Social Pension) of Republic Act No. 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 and is being implemented by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in partnership with the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO).
    Under the said provision, indigent senior citizens shall be “entitled to a monthly stipend amounting to P500.00 to augment the daily subsistence and other medical needs of senior citizens who are beneficiaries of the said program.”
    Tabanda said the city government recognizes the need of the indigent senior citizens to be granted financial assistance from all available sources.
    “Many of these indigent senior citizens are unemployed and not receiving financial support from their families, relatives, or any institution. Some simply share resources with other family members,” she stated.
    The proposed local social pension is meant to protect the target beneficiaries from deprivation and help them meet their own basic necessities to survive.
    The Local Senior Social Pension Program shall be available to a Filipino citizen who is at least 65 years old at the time of application; a resident of Baguio City for at least three years and a holder of an ID issued by the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) for at least three years; not employed nor receiving regular financial support or material support from family members or relatives; not receiving a regular pension of more than P3,000.00 from the Government Service Insurance System (GIS), Social Security System (SSS), or any private company; and not a social pensioner/beneficiary/recipient of any other financial assistance from the local or national government or institution.
    For its initial implementation, the Local Senior Social Pension Program shall have 3,000 qualified indigent senior citizens as beneficiaries. The implementing guidelines of the program shall be formulated by an ad hoc committee composed of the CSWDO and the OSCA.
    An amount of P18 million shall be sourced from any available funds of the city government for the implementation of the program. The succeeding funds shall be included in the annual budget of the CSWDO.
The proposed ordinance has been referred to the Sanggunian’s committee on social services, women, and urban poor for review.