Datuin pushing indigent social pension program in Baguio City

BAGUIO CITY – Re-electionist City Councilor Atty.Elmer Datuin promised to promote to the Council his program to benefit more than 3,000 indigent senior citizens through his proposed ordinance Granting Local Social Pension to Indigent Senior Citizens in Baguio City.

“It is in its second reading, after publication it will go to the third and final reading of the Indigent senior citizen social Pension program of the city of Baguio, which will address the waiting lists for social pensions queued up at the City Social Welfare and Development Office,” Datuin said.

According to Datuin, in Baguio City, there are 6,348 social pensioners receiving P1,000 per month through the CSWDO and more than 3,000 are on the waiting list.

There are a total of 55,000 senior citizens in Baguio City, based on data from the National Commission on Senior Citizens (NCSC),

“Now, those on the waiting list can no longer move up, my plan is to address the waiting list, because they are old, they may die before they can taste it, so this is our priority,”

“These waiting lists are pathetic, how long will they have to wait, they deserve to be blessed, although the government’s quota is limited, we are working on ways for the city government to help these waiting lists,’ Datuin explained.

According to Datuin, in this ordinance, instead of the DSWD being the payer, the city government will be the one to provide pensions to the waiting lists. “It passed on the first reading, but on the third reading, the local finance committee computed and it emerged that almost P40 million is needed to be distributed to the waiting lists.”

“Local finance said it could be reduced, so now the recalculation is ongoing and in our consultation with the City Social Welfare Office, instead of 3,000, the first 1,000 will be addressed, which will at least increase the number of people receiving social pension.”

Datuin explained that if this ordinance is approved, the city government will provide pensions from the first 1,000 senior citizens who are selected from the CSWDO waiting list. (PR)