Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan said the P500 monthly pension “is not enough for everyday expenses and especially for [the] medical needs” of seniors.
Sen. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan filed proposal before the Senate bill to grant all Filipino senior citizens who don’t receive any pension to receive P1,000 a month from the national government.
Pangilinan’s Senate Bill 259 seeks to amend the Republic Act 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 by doubling the monthly pension from P500 to P1,000 and expand the program to include all seniors not just indigent seniors.
“We recognize the contribution of senior citizens in the country’s progress. The law we passed gave some relief to three million indigent senior citizens but a big percentage of them are still not covered by the program,” Pangilinan said in a statement. He also added that “many of our aging farmers will welcome this proposal.”
Pangilinan, who is also the president of the Liberal Party, said the P500 monthly pension “is not enough for everyday expenses and especially for [the] medical needs” of seniors. In the bill’s explanatory note, Pangilinan cited a 2017 study which showed that the value of the current P500 monthly pension has fallen by 22% in real terms and is equivalent to only P403.
Nine years since the amendment of RA 994, Pangilinan said the cost of basic commodities has increased and the value of the pension they receive is not enough to cope up. (Rommel F. Lopez)