THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has asked the Senate Finance Committee to support the inclusion of almost one million waitlisted indigent senior citizens in the agency’s Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens (SPISC).
Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian, during the deliberation on DSWD’s budget in the Senate last Wednesday, said they need at least P12 billion more to include the one million waitlisted elders in the social pension program, which currently benefits four million senior citizens.
“We have a running waitlist of close to one million qualified indigent seniors. They have passed the criteria but we simply lack the budget to include them,” Gatchalian said.
Each qualified senior citizen receives a P1,000 monthly pension, which they can use for their food, medicine, and health care.
It is given to poor, frail, or disabled Filipinos aged 60 and above who have no income, existing pension, or family support.
Senators Pia Cayetano, Loren Legarda and Christopher “Bong” Go had expressed support for the DSWD’s appeal, citing that funding may be sourced from the P250 billion budget for flood control projects in 2026 that have been removed.
