Senior Citizen party-list Rep. Rodolfo Ordanes on Sunday vowed to work for the increase in the elderly’s social pension, following the approval of a bicameral committee report on a P1,000 increase.
“We hope the reconciled version of House Bill 9459 and Senate Bill 2506, which we worked hard at from committee level to bicameral conference committee, will get signed into law before June 30 by fellow senior citizen, President Rodrigo Duterte,” he said.
He thanked all the senators, especially outgoing Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Joel Villanueva, as well as members of the House of Representative for the proposed increase’s approval.
“We supported the adoption of the reconciled version because it is essentially what we pushed for and labored during the committee and plenary deliberations in the House. This is the bicameral legislative system working well for the people,” he said.
The reconciled version included an automatic adjustment of the P1,000 pension, mandating the National Commission on Senior Citizens to adjust the pension rate based on the consumer price index at the time.
It contained a provision on waiver of service fees so that the pensioners could receive the pension in full without having to bear the service cost.