Under new law rewarding those turning 80 to 95 years old.

MORE than a quarter million elderly Filipinos are to receive a cash bonanza of P10,000 apiece this year as the initial beneficiaries of a 2024 law granting this financial gift to all our senior citizens when they reach 80, 85, 90 or 95 years of age, Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte has said.

The Marcos administration has allotted P2.95 billion for the inaugural rollout this year of the cash windfall for octogenarians and nonagenarians under Republic Act (RA) No. 11982, or the “Expanded Centenarians Act of 2024,” said Villafuerte, National Unity Party (NUP) president and one of the authors of this law.

Citing a report by the National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC), Villafuerte said that the government is set to hand out the financial reward this 2025 to a total of 275,000 octogenarians and nonagenarians, regardless of their financial status.

These beneficiary-seniors include the 1,079 who received their cash gifts during the simultaneous inaugural distribution under RA 11982 at Malacañan Palace and other places last Feb. 26, and some 7,000 more who will have received their bonuses by end-February, said Villafuerte, also an author of RA 11916, or an “Act increasing the Social Pension of Senior Citizens,” which doubled this monthly stipend to P1,000.

“Such cash gifts of P10,000 for the elderly when they turn 80, 85, 90 or 95, are on top of the P100,000 bonus due every one of them when they becomes a centenarian or reach the age of 100, as provided for by RA 10868, or the ‘Centenarians Act of 2016,’” Villafuerte said.

“As President Marcos himself pointed out during the Feb. 26 ceremony at the Palace on the initial distribution of the P10,000 gifts to the first batch of RA 11982 beneficiaries, our senior citizens ‘deserve all the love, care and protection’ so much so that the government has been working hard to provide for their needs and benefits,” Villafuerte said.

“Sa Bagong Pilipinas, hangad natin na mabuhay nang may ginhawa at dignidad ang ating mga matatanda,” said President Marcos during the Inaugural Cash Gift Distribution to the Qualified Beneficiaries of the Expanded Centenarians Act of 2024.

“Mga kababayan, hindi na dapat pinagdadaanan pa ng ating mga senior citizens ang ganitong mga problema sa yugtong ito ng kanilang buhay. They deserve nothing but our love, our care, and our protection,” the President added.

At the Palace event, the President distributed cash gifts to select senior citizens identified by NCSC, some of whom were veterans of World War II.

The NCSC said it was to complete the distribution of cash gifts to 7,759 senior-beneficiaries by the end of February, or a year after President Marcos signed RA 11982 at the Palace.

RA 9994, or the “Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010,” entitled Filipinos to discounts on certain products and services when they turn 60 years old, and granted a monthly social pension (socpen) of P500 for the indigent ones among them.

As mandated by RA 11916, which lapsed into law in July 2022, the socpen of P500 monthly was doubled to P1,000.

In his speech at the Palace’s Heroes Hall during the inaugural distribution event, President Marcos noted that 73% of our senior citizens rely on their children for financial support, while 55% pay out of pocket for their healthcare expenses.

Cash gifts totaling about P12 million were distributed to 1,079 beneficiaries nationwide during the Feb. 26 event, including the 14 who received their rewards from the President at the Palace.

The United Nations (UN) projects the population of Filipinos aged 60 and above to exceed 10% from 2025 to 2030.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the population of the Philippines was 109 million plus as of 2020, of whom 9.24 million were seniors.

About a tenth of these senior citizens—some 950,000–were octogenarians and nonagenarians.

“Elderly Filipinos are getting a cash bonanza by the time they turn octogenarians and nonagenarians and not only when they reach 100 years old, under RA 11982,” Villafuerte said.

Villafuerte said that our senior citizens, whether living here or abroad, will each be getting cash rewards of P10,000 when they turn 80, 85, 90 and 95 years of age.

These octogenarians and nonagenarians will still get another P100,000 when they reach 100 years old, as provided for in the original law benefitting centenarians, he said.

“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 a cash windfall not only when they become centenarians but even when they turn 80, 85, 90 and 95 years old,” Villafuerte said.

Villafuerte was the lead author of House Bill (HB) No. 302, which was one of the bills consolidated into the final version of the measure—(HB 7535)—approved by the House of Representatives.

He had authored HB 302 with Camarines Sur Reps. Miguel Luis Villafuerte and Tsuyoshi Anthony Horibata along with the Bicol Saro partylist.

Earlier, Villafuerte called on the Department of Health (DOH) to look into yearend reports that certain drug stores or pharmacies had refused to grant discounts to senior citizens who do not have their purchase booklets with them when buying their medicines, in violation of a newly-issued DOH order requiring the elderly to present only their identification cards (IDs) and doctors’ prescriptions to avail of such law-mandated price cuts.

Villafuerte said, “The DOH and other appropriate government Offices need to check on the compliance of drugstores with DOH AO (Administrative Order) No. 2024-0017 and to crack down on erring establishments, as the reported refusal of certain pharmacies to sell prescription meds to elderly Filipinos is a blatant breach of RA 9994.”

“I am at the same time appealing to the DOH and the other appropriate agencies to consider expanding this new privilege by similarly allowing PWDs (persons with disabilities) to present only their IDs and doctors’ prescriptions, and no longer their purchase booklets, when availing of their same price discounts in their OTC (over-the-counter) purchases,” Villafuerte said.

He said, “I am calling, too, on the appropriate agencies to consider expanding this new policy for elderly Filipinos by also removing this purchase book-requirement when they purchase their basic commodities at a discount in groceries,” he said.

Just before Christmas Day, Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa announced last Dec. 23 the release of DOH AO 2024-0017 removing the requirement for senior citizens to present their purchase booklets to avail of their discounts whenever buying their medicines in drugstores.

Villafuerte noted that Section 7 of RA 9994 slaps on first-time violators a fine of P50,000 to P100,000 and jail time of two (2) to 6 years, and a fine of P100,000 to P200,000 and imprisonment of 2 to 6 years also for subsequent offenses.

Erring establishments face the cancellation of their franchises or business permits as well, he said.

AUTHOR PROFILE

Ryan Ponce Pacpaco