MORE elderly are now receiving their social pension.
“Our beneficiaries have increased in number,” said Judith Tanate, focal person of Social Pension at DSWD Field Office VI.
Tanate said Western Visayas now has 67,499 indigent pensioners if compared to around 34,000 beneficiaries last year.
If broken down, Iloilo has 23,552 pensioners; Negros Occidental, 15,643; Capiz, 9,121; Aklan, 8,559; Antique, 8,133; and Guimaras, 2,491.
By December, the government would have disbursed P404.9 million to these senior citizens at P500 per month.
The Social Pension program is the provision of monthly stipend amounting to P500 to augment the daily subsistence and other medical needs of indigent senior citizens.
It is in-line with the fulfillment of the obligation of the government to protect the most vulnerable sector through social protection, and for the full implementation of the Republic Act No. 9994.
It aims to improve the living condition of eligible indigent senior citizens./dswd6/May Grecia-Rago