DSWD Secretary Erwin Tulfo advocated for more funding for the agency’s centenarian program, which qualifies them to a P100,000 tax-free cash gift from the national government. At present, 662 centenarians are on its waiting list.
DSWD Secretary Erwin Tulfo advocated for more funding for the agency’s social pension for indigent senior citizens and supplementary feeding program as well.
“For 2023, we have a proposed budget of 175,100,000 for the 1,675 centenarians that we have right now. However, may we inform you that we have 662 waitlisted beneficiaries that will entail P66 million under our Tier 2 proposal,” said Tulfo during the briefing on the DSWD 2023 budget.
However, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, the principal author of the House legislation for centenarian incentives, stated that time is of the importance when it comes to providing such incentives to qualifying centenarians: “Those waitlisted centenarians cannot wait because by the time you grant them the benefits they are looking for, baka they are not here with us anymore.”
Tulfo later revealed that they had requested funding from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), but it wasn’t approved by the budget agency.
“Ni-request na po namin ito sa DBM pero hindi po na-grant, so we have already informed them that meron po tayong waitlisted na 662 centenarians na nagaantay po ng payment,” he said.
