ILOILO CITY (PIA) -- The National Commission on Senior Citizens (NCSC) pushes for the registration of older persons through the NCSC online registration program.

This was raised by NCSC Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer lawyer Franklin M. Quijano during the recent second quarter joint meeting of the Inter-agency Committee for the Older Persons and Regional Committee on Disability Affairs at the Days Hotel, here.

“The National Commission (NCSC) is convinced of the fact that it would be good to know each and every senior citizen,” said Quijano.

Aiming to develop an excellent senior citizen information system in the country, NCSC devised enhanced senior citizen data forms, adding some vital features to include the older person’s source of income, if applicable, skill set, and health profile, among others.

However, the voluminous documents collected from LGUs take time for the encoders of the Commission to be inputted into the system hence the online registration program.

website is over two million out of the estimated 12.3 million Filipinos aged 60 years old and above.

“We expect to have online registrants of about eight to nine million by the end of the year. But this will not happen without your help,” Quijano added, urging the committee members to support the same.

Based on the DSWD 6 data, there are 859,891 senior citizens in the region and some 385,954 or almost 45 percent of them are DSWD social pension beneficiaries, as of April this year.

Meanwhile, DSWD 6 Assistant Regional Director for Operations Arwin Razo, who presided over the meeting, expressed the support of the Committee and their Agency to this call for continuous and efficient delivery of programs and services for older persons. (AAL/FRG/PIA6)