Woes of senior citizens

When former President Rodrigo Duterte stepped down from office at the end of his term on June 30 last year, at least 100 or so of enrolled bills approved by the 18th Congress and transmitted to Malacanang were left behind un-acted at his desk. One of which lapsed into law as Republic Act (RA) 11916, or the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens Act of 2022. This was a month after several other enrolled bills lapsed into law without the signature of Mr. Duterte.

This law increased the monthly social pension to elderly Filipinos, aged 60 years old and above, who is frail, sickly, or with a disability, and without a pension or permanent source of income, compensation, or financial assistance from family or relatives to sustain basic needs. The same law directed the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and the National Commission on Senior Citizens (NCSC) to distribute this cash aid to all qualified senior citizens from the present P500 to P1,000 a month.

Under our country’s 1987 Constitution, an enrolled or printed bill that both chambers of Congress approved and ratified into law gets automatically enacted 30 days if no action was taken after being submitted to the Office of the President. Nonetheless, an enrolled bill that lapsed into law is effective as any other statute that was approved and signed by the President.

This is unless otherwise vetoed by the President. In fact, seven bills approved by the 18th Congress got vetoed several weeks after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) took office at Malacanang.

RA 11916 got through the previous Congress six days before they adjourned for the May, 2022 national and local elections. Its enactment got fully supported by all lawmakers because obviously our country’s senior citizens who are all registered voters comprise quite a huge number to provide very good winning margin in closely contested elections.

We could only thank our Senior Citizens Party List Representative in Congress, Rodolfo “Ompong” Ordanes for succeeding to push the passage into law of RA 11916. Originally, the DSWD provides in its annual budget to distribute P500 per month of social pension for the so-called “poorest of the poor” senior citizens registered under the agency. The DSWD, along with the Office of Senior Citizens’ Affairs (OSCA) in all local government units and barangay chairpersons evaluate and vet the beneficiaries of this State aid for the needy elderly.

Ordanes bewailed the present monthly social pension though has been “discriminatory” and unfair to other senior citizens deserving also of the government cash aid, or “ayuda” given their similar dire straits. Thus, Ordanes disclosed, he has earlier filed a bill calling for Universal Social Pension Program for All Senior Citizens to expand its coverage.

Based from the last census done by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Ordanes cited, the number of senior citizens all over the country have increased from a year ago level of 12 million to around 13.8 million. By rough estimates, he calculated, the funding requirement would amount to P160 billion each year. “That amount is drop in the bucket if the national budget this year now amounts to P5.3 trillion,” he quipped.

However, we learned from Rep.Ordanes during our Kapihan sa Manila Bay last Wednesday that his colleagues in the present 19th Congress failed to provide for the additional P26 billion allocation under the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA) they passed into law last year to implement the P500 increase of monthly social pension for indigent senior citizens.

Moreover, Ordanes disclosed, the DSWD and the NCSC have yet to craft and submit for approval the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for RA 11916. The DSWD was mandated by this law, among other things, to turn over to the funds for social pension of senior citizens to the NCSC that should henceforth administer this annual allocation.

Ordanes had only good words for former DSWD Secretary Erwin Tulfo whom he credited for totally throwing his agency support to increase the monthly social pension for senior citizens. In a statement last year, Tulfo strongly appealed to the legislators of the 19th Congress to prioritize the appropriation of funds for the program in order to effectively implement the provisions of RA No. 11916 that could otherwise end up among the country’s unfunded laws.

Sadly though, Ordanes rued, the joint congressional Commission on Appointments last year bypassed twice the confirmation of Tulfo. PBBM named one of Tulfo’s deputies undersecretary Eduardo Punay as officer-in-charge. “Marites” has it Valenzuela City Rep.Rex Gatchalian is reportedly eyeing the DSWD post.

On the other hand, Ordanes scored the inordinate delay by the NCSC to discharge its full mandate after its creation in 2019 under RA 11350. Attached under the Office of the President, the seven-man body has so far only able to sign a memorandum of agreement with the DSWD for the transition of its mandated functions, Ordanes noted. According to him, the NCSC is currently being grilled in House public hearing on this score.

Thus, many of our ageing and ailing senior citizens qualified to receive this monthly state pension will have to wait until both the IRR and the budget for it come out.

Hopefully, these requirements are put into place while our senior citizens are still alive and kicking, so to speak.

Now at 70 years old, Rep.Ordanes could only wish his much younger colleagues in the present Congress would join him to call upon the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the DSWD and the NCSC to work out the full implementation of RA 11916. Or the other option, he added, is to pass a supplemental budget. However, he acknowledged this would be a longer and tedious process as it would go through the legislative mills in both chambers of Congress.

An elder statesman like the 62-year old PBBM, Ordanes hopes the Chief Executive would expeditiously act on the woes of their fellow senior citizens.