By Rjay Zuriaga Castor
The Department of Social Welfare and Development Western Visayas (DSWD-6) is revalidating social pensioners in the region to ensure government assistance is provided only to indigent senior citizens.
“The purpose of revalidating the recipients of Social Pension is to ensure that only those who are eligible for the program are the ones receiving the stipend. This way, we can help more elderly who need the pension badly,” said DSWD-6 Director Atty. Carmelo N. Nochete.
Nochete noted that the revalidation process may result in the removal of senior citizens mistakenly included in the program.
He explained that possible reasons for delisting a senior citizen from the DSWD Social Pension program include the death of the beneficiary, receiving a pension from SSS, GSIS, PVAO, AFPMBAI, or other insurance companies (retirement, survivorship, and disability pensions).
The removal will also include those who have a regular income or salary, financial support from family or relatives (honorariums or grants from any agencies or institutions), inability to be located at the last known address for two consecutive semesters, and transfer of residence of the beneficiary.
“The purpose of the program is to augment the daily subsistence and medical requirements of the beneficiaries, reduce the incidence of hunger among them, and mitigate the cause of neglect, abuse, or deprivation among indigent senior citizens,” Nochete added.
Western Visayas has a total of 385,954 social pensioners, according to DSWD-6 data in June 2024.
The province of Iloilo has the highest number of beneficiaries with 152,748 elderly; followed by Capiz with 56,265; Negros Occidental with 54,380; Aklan with 46,142; Antique with 41,972; Guimaras with 14,767; Iloilo City with 13,676; and Bacolod City with 5,975.
With the revalidation initiative, the DSWD-6 reported that 13,468 elderly were already removed from the program.
Of this number, 1,327 are found to have a pension from SSS and GSIS; 830 are receiving honorarium or salary; 331 are receiving regular support from their family; while the rest died or transferred residence and cannot be located.
In the social pension program, beneficiaries receive P1,000 per month, totaling P6,000 per semester.
