Senate urged: Pass universal social pension for seniors

MANILA, Philippines — Senators should pass the House-approved universal social pension for senior citizens bill when Congress reconvenes session on June 2, outgoing Albay Rep. Joey Salceda said recently.

“We are down to the last two session weeks. If there is a time to do this, it’s now. This is a legacy we can afford to leave the Filipino people,” Salceda said in a letter to Sen. Imee Marcos, who got reelected in the midterm elections.

Marcos is one of the key Senate advocates of the measure.

Salceda said he supports a version of the bill that would grant P500 monthly to seniors aged 60 to 69 and P1,000 to those aged 70 and above — with annual inflation adjustments while maintaining the existing P1,000 per month for indigent seniors.

The proposed measure is “fiscally viable and morally compelling,” he noted.

In a fiscal note Salceda submitted, he estimated the measure would cost P88.2 billion this year, covering 10.1 million seniors nationwide.

Even without new taxes, he said the measure can be funded through P41 billion in rationalized cash aid, including the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers program and Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program and other duplicative or leakage-prone programs.

Around P47 billion in fiscal management mechanisms can also be generated, which would include government-owned or controlled corporation dividend enforcement, national government savings and a second-quarter implementation start, he noted.

“We’re consolidating scattered and politicized cash doles into a clear, rights-based entitlement. It’s more efficient, more humane and more just,” Salceda said.

“This is the logic behind taxing foreign digital giants. As technology replaces labor, we must capture productivity and return it to people in the form of social dividends. A universal pension for the elderly is where we start,” he added.

Salceda said the measure is a unifying cause.

“The fiscal math is sound. The moral case is undeniable. We can finish this in the 19th Congress,” he said.