It has been over a month since government officials described as “malicious” and false the information that spread on social media about new pensions if senior citizens registered through an online data form. There has been no update.
The denial was issued by the National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC) in a press release posted on Feb. 28, 2023, and updated last March 29 on its website at https://www.ncsc.gov.ph. Before that statement, the Department of the Interior and Local Government issued an advisory on March 23 quoting Rep. Rodolfo Ordanes, House special committee on senior citizens chair, that there was a need to correct the wrong information that caused senior citizens to rush the online registration platform.
As of May 13, the NCSC website showed 1,692,222 registrants in its database of senior citizens. This online registration caused confusion in February and March because senior citizens thought they needed to register to avail themselves of the P1,000-a-month benefit for pensioners and non-pensioners with the transfer of senior citizen-related benefits and programs from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to the NCSC.
The NCSC press release appealed to senior citizens to “stay calm but cautious” over the proliferation of “distorted news and misinformation drive on social media.” NCSC chairman Franklin Quijano said there has been no transfer yet of duties and functions from DSWD to NCSC and, while it’s true that RA 11916 mandates a 100 percent increase in the indigent senior citizen’s monthly pension—from P500 to P1,000, “it would still have to be funded by the Department of Budget and Management and it could only take effect after the National Treasury have allocated the needed fund. But as of now, it is still unfunded.”
Currently, only selected indigent senior citizens numbering around 4.1 million out of the total 12.2 million are receiving a P500 social pension per month.
Online registration is not a requirement to get the pension. As stated on the website, senior citizens are “invited” to register to the database to help the NCSC develop “an excellent senior citizen information system in the country, to be used as the basis for plans, programs, projects, activities, and events that will help improve the lives of older Filipino persons.”
The silence after those denials and clarification does not help the status of senior citizens in the country who continue to hope for more benefits to improve their lives. This is why the Philippine Association of Retired Professionals Inc. (PARP) revived the issue in a letter sent last May 12 to Quijano. It asked the NCSC to make an official announcement regarding any and all benefits that are due to senior citizens to differentiate the truth from “fake news.”
Would there be a budget to fund the pensions? What funding sources are being tapped? Without a fund, the law would end up as an empty gesture.