Amid the current budget season in the 20th Congress, Camarines Sur Governor LRay Villafuerte is batting for an extra outlay of almost P14 billion for the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), so the government can start giving the monthly pension of P1,000 to about a million indigent and eligible senior citizens who are not getting this law-mandated stipend owing to budgetary constraints.
“Because of inadequate funds, more than one million indigent seniors who are eligible for the SPISC (Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens) are unfortunately on the DSWD’s waitlist of elderly-beneficiaries—and are thus not getting the monthly socpen (social pension) due them under two laws on financial assistance for needy Filipinos 60 years of age and above,” said Villafuerte, an author of one of these two laws and former Camarines Sur representative.
At present, only about 4.085 million indigent seniors who are already enrolled in the SPISC program are receiving their monthly allowance—as provided for in Republic Act (RA) No. 9994 and RA 11196—because the government only has enough funds to grant this monthly socpen to this number of beneficiary-indigent senior citizens.
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) reported last year that it released P49.807 billion for the annual SPISC budget of over 4 million indigent seniors.
Another 1 million eligible seniors are waitlisted.
RA 9994, or the “Expanded Senior Citizens Act” of 2010, provided for a monthly socpen of P500 to eligible seniors for their subsistence and medical needs, while RA 11916, or an “An Act Increasing the Social Pension of Senior Citizens,” doubled this socpen to P1,000 beginning in 2024.
“Sixty-year-old Filipinos and above who are ill or living with a disability, and who have no regular income, pension or family support are under these two laws supposed to be getting the law-mandated socpen on a monthly, bimontly or quarterly basis to help defray their expenses for subsistence and medical needs,” said Villafuerte, one of the authors of RA 11196 that doubled the monthly pension to P1,000.
“Hence, our appeal to lawmakers to consider setting aside an extra allocation of almost P14 billion for the DSWD so it can grant the monthly socpen of P1,000 even to the indigent and eligible seniors who are on its current waitlist of SPISC beneficiaries,” he said.
In the deliberations in the House of Representatives on the budget of the DSWD under the proposed General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2026, this Department said it needs an extra P13.9 billion to fund the SPISC requirements of the waitlisted beneficiaries of this social protection program for the aged.
At present, only about 4.085 million indigent seniors who are already enrolled in the SPISC program are receiving their monthly allowance.
Earlier, Villafuerte said he was looking forward to the seamless transfer of the National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC) from the Office of the President (OP) to the DSWD, hoping this streamlining move would entail the continued “hassle-free” implementation of social protection programs for an estimated 11 million elderly Filipinos.
“It is our hope that the transfer would entail a seamless transition, ensuring the continued implementation of programs for our elderly Filipinos, especially the hassle-free grant of the monthly socpen of P1,000 to our indigent seniors,” Villafuerte said.
Alongside RA 11196, another law that Villafuerte had co-authored during his three-term stint as CamSur representative was RA 11982, or the “Act granting Benefits to Filipino Octogenarians and Nonagenarians,” which amended RA 10868, or the “Centenarians Act” of 2016, by granting a P10,000 cash gift each to senior citizens when they reach 80, 85, 90 and 95 years of age.
RA 10868 provided for a P100,000 gift each for seniors when they reach 100 years of age.
President Marcos issued Executive Order (EO) No. 96 last September that placed the NCSC directly under the DSWD from the OP for better policy and program coordination for the benefit of senior citizens who, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), totaled 9.22 million or 8.5% of the country’s household population as of 2020,
However, current estimates have placed the number of seniors at a higher 11 million, of whom 8,736,887 had registered with the NCSC website as of end-September 2025, said Villafuerte, who is the president of the National Unity Party (NUP) and senior vice president for South Luzon of the League of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP).
The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) reported last year that it released P49.807 billion for the annual SPISC budget of over 4 million indigent seniors.