P50B allotted for senior pensions
NEXT year’s proposed national budget includes P49.8 billion in funding for the allowances of poor senior citizens, according to the Budget department.
The allocation would help support more than 4,000 senior citizens, it said in a statement.
Under a state program, poor seniors will get a monthly allowance of P1,000. The law increased their allowance from P500.
“It is apt that there is sufficient funding for this program so our grandpas and grandmas will get the benefits due them,” Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said in mixed English and Filipino.
Meanwhile, the government also earmarked P3 billion to cover the cash gift to Filipinos who reach 100 hundred years old.
Under the expanded Centenarians Act, Filipinos who reach the age of 100 will get P100,000, while P10,000 is given to those who have reached 80, 85, 90 and 95. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz