• CHERYL G. CRUZ
The Department of Social Welfare and Development and Bacolod Rep. Alfredo Benitez have been asked for an increase in the number of beneficiaries and budget for the social pension of the city’s senior citizens.
Councilor Celia Matea Flor, chairperson of the Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Senior Citizens, noted that despite being one of the two highly-urbanized cities (HUCs) in Western Visayas and the regional center of Negros Island, Bacolod “ranks the lowest in the entire region, in terms of the number of social pension beneficiaries.”
Bacolod’s coverage rate under the national social pension program is significantly lower than other comparable areas in Western Visayas, Flor said. “For instance, Iloilo City’s 13,666 beneficiaries represent a much larger share of its elderly population, and even smaller provinces, such as Guimaras, with 14,767 beneficiaries, have more than double
Bacolod’s allocation despite having a smaller total population.”
This disparity places Bacolod’s indigent senior citizens at a disadvantage, depriving many of them of much-needed financial assistance for food, medicine, and daily living expenses, the councilor said in her resolution approved by the SP Oct. 8. “Considering Bacolod’s urban cost of living and growing elderly population, the current allocation is no longer sufficient to address the needs of its senior citizens”, hence the request.
The Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens (SocPen) program of the DSWD granted a monthly stipend of P500, or P6,000 annually, to qualified indigent senior citizens who do not receive any other pension or regular support from family members. The assistance was increased to P1,000 starting January last year, after the passage of Republic Act 1196, or An Act Increasing the Social Pension of Senior Citizens.
DSWD data showed that the number of social pension beneficiaries across Western Visayas and the corresponding amount disbursed include: Aklan with 46,137 beneficiaries (P276.8 million), Antique with 35,947 beneficiaries (P215.6 million), Capiz – 56,265 (P337.5 million), Guimaras – 14,767 (P88.6 million), Iloilo Province – 152,729 (P916.3 million), Iloilo City – 13,666 (P81.9 million), Negros Occidental – 52,131 (P312.7 million), and Bacolod – 5,970 beneficiaries, who received P35.8 million, Flor said.
Bacolod currently has 67,870 registered senior citizens with QR codes, of which only 5,970 or 8.8 percent are recipients of the SocPen program. An additional 14,083 seniors receive local pension assistance from the city government, but this still leaves around 47,817, or about 70 percent, of Bacolod’s elderly population, without any form of regular pension assistance, she added.
Flor stressed that there is an urgent need to advocate for a more equitable distribution of national resources to ensure that Bacolod’s senior citizens are adequately represented and supported under the DSWD’s SocPen program. | CGC
