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Friday, March 29, 2024

DSWD told: Review procedure

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A FEMALE legislator who represents senior citizens in the House of Representatives on Thursday asked the Department of Social Welfare and Development to review its procedure of distributing the social pension of the elderly in so-called “geographically-isolated and disadvantaged areas” or GIDAs.

Party-list Rep. Milagros Magsaysay of Senior Citizen made the call following the accident that killed 15 people, most of them senior citizens, when the passenger jeepney they were riding fell into a 200-meter ravine in Balbalan, Kalinga.

The victims were on their way home from the town center after getting their Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program allowances at an Automatic Teller Machine in the town proper.

Balbalan is one of the remotest and upland towns in Kalinga.

In House Resolution 2179, Magsaysay urged the DSWD to review its current social pension payout system, and to devise a more convenient, safe, efficient, and sustainable solution for social pension beneficiaries to receive their monthly pension of P500.

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“For the convenience of the senior citizens, the distribution of the social pension should be made monthly,” the 71-year-old lawmaker said.

She added: “It has been a common practice for our elderly in the remotest parts of our countryside to rent jeepneys to collect their monthly pensions, whether from their local ATMs or through their municipal pay-out offices. 

“The risk that they are taking in collecting their monthly subsistence has never been brought to the public consciousness until now. 

“With the current process, we are not only exposing them to unfortunate accidents such as in Balbalan, but also in the dangers of robbery and theft.”

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