ILOILO City – Alarmed by the Commission on Audit’s (COA) discovery that 420 unqualified senior citizens in this city were included in the national government’s Social Pension Program for Indigent Senior Citizens (SPISC), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has ordered a Western Visayas-wide cleansing of its list of program beneficiaries.
Under SPISC, a monthly stipend of P500 is given to indigent senior citizens to augment their daily subsistence and medical needs. But only the following are qualified:
* those who are frail, sickly or with disability
* those with no pension from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Social Security System (SSS), Philippine Veterans Affairs Office (PVAO), Armed Forces and Police Mutual Benefit Association, Inc. or any other insurance company
* those with no permanent source of income
* those with no regular support from family or relatives for basic needs
Being the lead implementer of SPISC in Western Visayas, DSWD Region 6 said it “regrets that ineligible beneficiaries have been included” in the program.
It recently forwarded the recommendation of COA to the Iloilo City Social Welfare and Development Office to require the ineligible beneficiaries to refund P1.830 million worth of social pension disbursed to them last year.
According to COA, out of the 13,190 social pensioners in the city, 420 beneficiaries were found to be ineligible. This is 3.1 percent of the total number of beneficiaries of the program.
Each of these beneficiaries received P1,500 to P4,500.
This must not happen again, DSWD-6 stressed.
For the revalidation of all listed social pensioners in the region, all employees of DSWD-6 have been mobilized, according to Assistant Secretary Jose Antonio Hernando of DSWD’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Special Concerns.
SPISC is being implemented by DSWD in coordination with the Municipal or City Social Welfare and Development Office — an office under the local government unit — as well as with the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA).
Under the guidelines of the program, the Barangay Senior Citizens Association may recommend or submit a list of potential beneficiaries to the OSCA Head or to the city or municipal social welfare development office.
The DSWD field office shall then cross-match the consolidated list submitted with the available data from SSS, GSIS, PVAO, and other insurance companies.
The field office’s social worker or focal person shall take the lead in the conduct of assessment to the list of potential beneficiaries.
“DSWD assures the public that it is doing its best to ensure that only the rightful beneficiaries are provided with government assistance,” said Hernando./PN
“Bogus pensioners” – this phrase is an insult to the senior citizens who didn’t even know what it means … some of them don’t even know how to read and write … even their group leaders can hardly understand english and it is not their fault if some of them who have the regular support or income are included in your masterlist because all they knew was that they are senior citizens and so must received the same benefits from the government . Now if your ruling about who should received the senior citizens pension was not followed blame it to implementing agencies … they are suppose to be the one who explain properly the rules and regulations to the people and see to it that they are understood, they should evaluate each and every senior citizen according to the situation or living condition by visiting their houses and interviewing them face to face not by just asking their neighbors who harbor jealousy against them. Do not accuse senior citizens of being bogus … it is your lazy dumb workers who never perform their work properly. Do not play with the senior citizens emotions … they are too frail to travel back and forth to where your lazy social workers ordered them to gather 🙁 … Does anyone of you feel how our senior citizens feel falling in line as early as 7AM till late afternoon without even eating breakfast and lunch or not even drinking water ? for the fear of leaving their line ? And after a day of waiting they will be told that their name weren’t on the list ? These people came mostly from the farm… they walk miles to come to town hoping for a debris of government mercy and you the implementing agencies are playing them 🙁 soon it will be your turn …, you will pay for it God is watching you 🙁