DUMAGUETE CITY, Sept. 7 (PNA) — Three hundred senior citizens in the city, aged 77 and above, received financial aid amounting to PHP2,000 each from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Region 7.
Funds for the said initiative came from the Bottom-up Budgeting (BUB) program of the national government.
Dumaguete City Social Welfare Officer Carola Alquero disclosed this year’s recipients, who received the aid this past weekend, are indigent senior citizens who do not have pensions from the Social Security System (SSS), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and the like and those who are not receiving the social pension of PHP500.00 per month.
A total of PHP500,000 was appropriated for the cash payout including the city’s counterpart of PHP100,000.
Mayor Manuel Sagarbarria was on hand to distribute the cash aid to each of the 300 recipients. The mayor said he would like the program to continue next year, but the cut off age be lowered to 65 years old.
The recipients come from 23 barangays, except for Bunao, and the poblacion barangays 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7.
In an interview, senior citizens federation president George Villamor explained the 300 senior citizens who are beneficiaries of the BUB funds is separate from the city’s social pensioners numbering about 450 who are receiving a monthly pension of PHP500.00 each.
They cannot be included as among the social pensioners because the quota for Dumaguete is only 450, but they will be listed as reserves in case of death of any of the 450 as replacement.
Dumaguete City Local Government Operations Officer Farah Gentuya said the BUB is part of the poverty reduction program of the national government where planning and identification of projects start from the grassroots level with participation of non government organizations, civil society organizations, people’s organizations, with counterpart funds from the LGU concerned.
In Dumaguete, a total of PHP15 million had been channeled to the city this year, part of which goes to the senior citizens under the BUB as identified by the federation itself headed by Villamor.
Mayor Sagarbarria further disclosed another PHP300,000 is ready for the livelihood projects of the senior citizens in Dumaguete for the purchase of tables and chairs to be distributed to different associations.
Meanwhile, senior citizens who are receiving the monthly pension of PHP500 each will receive PHP1,500 each this coming Sept. 24-25, 2015, representing their pension for the last three months from April to June, according to Villamor.
The federation of senior citizens has a membership of 3,715 while the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs has almost 13,000 members in the city. (PNA)