MANILA, Philippines — Senator Grace Poe is pushing for added social protection of senior citizens by giving them a monthly stipend to augment their expenses.
Poe on Tuesday filed Senate Bill 126, which seeks to amend Republic Act (RA) No. 7432, as amended by RA No. 9994, or the “Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.”
Under her proposed measure, all senior citizens will receive at least P1,500 as a monthly stipend to help them with their daily subsistence and other medical needs.
“Maraming taon na ang kanilang ginugol sa trabaho at pag-aalaga sa pamilya. Karamihan, hanggang sa pagtanda ay nag-aalaga ng mga apo,” Poe said in a statement.
“Bigyan natin ang ating mga lolo at lola ng malasakit at ginhawa kahit paano na nararapat sa kanila,” she added.
The bill though provides that “senior citizens currently covered by the Social Security System (SSS), the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), and the pension system for military veterans under RA No. 6948 shall not be eligible for this benefit in the first three years of implementation of this Act.”
The senator explained that senior citizens without a social pension will be prioritized in the first three years of implementation “to ease the potential shock” of the measure on the budget.
Poe added that this will allow the government to prepare for the bigger funding requirement when senior citizens with an existing pension would already be included.
If passed into law, the funds needed for the implementation of the measure will be sourced from the respective budgets of responsible national government agencies.
But if present funds will not suffice, funding can be included among allocations under the next package of the Duterte administration’s tax reform law, Poe noted.
“Sa iba’t ibang dahilan, hindi nakapag-apply sa SSS o GSIS ang iba nating kababayan, o kaya naman ay hindi na mahanap ang kanilang record,” she pointed out. “Tulungan na lang natin sila sa abot ng ating makakaya.” (Editor: Katherine G. Adraneda)