BUTUAN CITY -- Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman announced that P49.81 billion has been allotted from the proposed 2024 National Budget to fund the increase in social pension of indigent senior citizens.

The P49.81 billion allocation is double the amount of P25.30 billion in the 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA), Secretary Pangandaman said during the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) briefing at the House of Representatives on 10 August 2023.

“The budget for social pension for indigent senior citizens will be doubled to P49.81 billion to cover the increased government monthly allowance of P1,000 for more than 4 million indigent senior citizens who are not part of the pension system,” the Budget Secretary said.

The Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens (SPIC) Program, a program that started in 2011 through Republic Act 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, provides for an additional government assistance of P500 monthly allowance to augment the daily expenses and other medical needs of indigent senior citizens who are frail, sickly or with disability; with no regular income or support from family and relatives; and without pension from private or government institutions.

The Social Pension for Indigent Seniors Act (RA 11916), which lapsed into law on 30 July 2022, has officially doubled the monthly pension from the current P500 to P1,000 per validated senior indigent.

The budget for the SPIC Program is part of the allocations for the Social Services sector, which will get P2.183 trillion or 37.9 percent of the proposed 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP).

The spending priorities in the national budget are the starting point of the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s 8-Point Socioeconomic Agenda — which aims to help address inflation by protecting the purchasing power of families and consumers and to mitigate the socioeconomic scarring brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. (DBM/PIA-Caraga)