The Social Pension Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development holds a capability building workshop for LGUs and partners implementers in Iloilo City this week.

A total of 196 Local Government Unit (LGU), Office of the Senior Citizens Association (OSCA), Federation of Senior Citizens Associations of the Philippines (FSCAP) and Senior Citizens Federated Association of Iloilo (SCFAI) representatives from different municipalities in Iloilo and Guimaras were oriented, trained and updated on the social pension program of DSWD.

“This activity will help enlighten the program implementers particularly on their roles and responsibilities in implementing our social pension program,” says Judith Barredo, Focal, Dswd Social Pension Program.

She added that the said workshop is also the best venue to address all the issues and concerns regarding the program.

This year, a total of 317,020 indigent senior citizens in Western Visayas have already received their quarterly stipend (P500 monthly).

Compliant with Republic Act 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act, Social Pension Program for Indigent Senior Citizen (SPISC) provides assistance to senior citizens to “augment [their] daily subsistence and other medical needs.” It aims to reduce incidence of hunger among indigent senior citizens and protect indigent senior citizens from neglect, abuse, and deprivation.

It was stressed during the said activity that only Indigent senior citizens who are frail, sickly or with disability; do not receive pension from state-run pension agencies; and do not have a permanent source of income or financial support from family or relatives are qualified.

The week long activity aims to iron out challenges and enhance the implementation of social pension program nationwide.

Likewise, scheduled workshop in different provinces will be held in succeeding weeks’ parallel to this activity. /Merry Jezzel Monares-Brendia