An official from the Office for Senior Citizens Affairs (Osca) revealed that their 2023 annual subsidy distribution was delayed as it was supposedly been distributed in November.
Wendelino Enocida, assistant head of Osca, revealed this in a radio interview, on Friday afternoon, December 29, 2023.
Enocida said that their annual subsidy for 2022 was distributed on time in November of that year. However, for the year 2023, it was supposed to be given out to senior citizens in the same month, November, but some beneficiaries have not received until now.
“Supposed to be karon November unta kay maoy naa sa IRR (Implementing Rules and Regulations) ang kaso lang na-delay sa cleansing ng record (It was supposed to be [distributed] last November because that is what is stated in the IRR but the problem is there is a delay in the cleansing of records),” he said.
The delay in the cleansing is due to the difficulty in taking out of the list the names of the deceased beneficiaries.
Enocida said that there were cases where the deceased beneficiary was still listed among those who would receive the subsidy. These cases are particularly common in those senior citizen chapters that do not have their own set of officials.
Osca, together with the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO), conducted a cleansing of the data to update the list of beneficiaries around November 2023, hence, there was not enough time for the payout.
“Ang possible na kay mag adto na sa next year ang year 2023 na annual subsidy – possible mga first quarter (There is a huge possibility that the distribution of the 2023 annual subsidy will be done next year – probably around the first quarter),” Enocida said.
Individuals who are aged 60 and above can receive a subsidy as the age of recipients for the subsidy has been lowered.
For the social pension, senior citizens only need to bring their Osca ID and a photocopy of it with three specimen signatures. These should be submitted to the validators first and once validated they will be given a slip so they can claim their social pension.
Senior Citizens have already received their payout for their social pension for the first and second semesters last December 23, 2023.
Meanwhile, in a separate radio interview, Julie Dayaday, officer-in-charge of CSWDO, said that as of Wednesday, December 27, 2023, around 29,000 among the 170,000 qualified senior citizens have already received their annual subsidy.
“Ang atoang hangyo lang pud sa atong lolo ug lola nga magpaabot lang gyud sa inyong schedule kay giuna lang nato tong naa sa lagyo nga lugar kay kita diri sa downtown area kay medyo daghan man jud accessibility (Our request to our grandfathers and grandmothers is to patiently wait for their schedule since we only started distributing in far-flung areas because the downtown area is much more accessible compared to the hinterlands),” Dayaday said. RGP