Villafuerte

Elderly can look forward to cash gifts — lawmaker

October 8, 2023 Ryan Ponce Pacpaco 345 views

ELDERLY Filipinos can count on the Marcos administration to soon grant them cash gifts by the time they reach 80 or 90 years of age, under a measure approved by both the Senate and the House of Representatives that aims to give a monetary bonus not only to centenarians but to octagenarians and nonagenarians as well, according to Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte.

With the congressional passage of both the Senate and House bills similarly seeking to give this cash bonanza to every Filipino, whether living here or abroad, when he or she reaches the ages of 80 and 90, Villafuerte said lawmakers will now reconcile both measures via the bicameral conference (bicam) process, in order to come up with a final or enrolled bill for submission to President Marcos for his approval and signing into law.

Villafuerte issued this statement following the issuance of Memorandum Circular (MC) 34 that directed all national government agencies, state corporations, government financial institutions (GFIs) and local government units (LGUs) to support pro-elderly activities in last week’s annual celebration of the Linggo ng Katandaang Filipino (Elderly Filipino Week).

In MC 34, Malacañan Palace ordered the National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC) to spearhead programs in support of Republic Act (RA) 11350 or the NCSC Act.

Proclamation 470 (series of 1994) had declared the first week of October each year as Linggo ng Katandaang Filipino, in recognition of the elderly sector’s role in nation-building.

“Seldom do Filipinos reach the age of 100, so what better way for the national government and the Congress to show our country’s appreciation for the significant contributions of our grandparents and other seniors to society during their relatively more productive years than to give them cash gifts not only when they become centenarians but even when they turn 80 and then 90 years old,” Villafuerte, one of the authors of the House version of this measure, said.

Villafuerte, National Unity Party (NUP) president, was the lead author of House Bill (HB) 302, which was one of the bills consolidated with HB 7535 that the House passed on third and final reading last May before the adjournment of the first regular session of the 19th Congress, in a bid to amend RA 10868—the “Centenarians Act of 2016”—that granted a P100,000 cash gift to Filipino centenarians.

HB 7535 proposes to raise the P100,000 cash gift to centenarians to P1 million, and adds a bonus of P25,000 each to senior citizens when they become 80, 85, 90 and 95 years old.

The bill mandates the NCSC to take over this project’s implementation from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

RA 10868 tasked the DSWD to take charge of distributing to centenarians the cash gift and the accompanying letter of felicitation from the President for each beneficiary.

Ahead of this year’s celebration of the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly last July, Villafuerte made an appeal to senators to pass their counterpart to HB 7535 “as a way to support and honor them (senior citizens), when they become octogenarians, nonagenarians and centenarians.”

Senators passed Senate Bill (SB) 2028—their counterpart to HB 7535—last month before the Senate and the House took their Sept. 30-Nov.5 congressional recess.

SB 2028 keeps the current cash gift of P100,000 and felicitation letter from the President for every centenarian, as provided under RA 10868, but proposes a bonanza of P10,000 each when senior citizens reach 80 years old, and P20,000 at the age of 90.

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