CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Thousands of indigent Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in this city are expected to receive monthly social pension from the city government starting next year.
THE city government of Cagayan de Oro temporarily places several massage therapists who are deaf and mute on the second floor of Cogon Public Market. (File photo courtesy of Councilor Girlie Balaba)
The city council passed proposed Ordinance No. 2023-274 or the Social Pension of Indigent Adults and Children with Disability Ordinance during its regular session on Monday, August 14.
"This is good news to us, especially to our brothers and sisters who are PWDs, that the ordinance providing social pension to our indigent PWDs has finally been approved in the city," Councilor Joyleen Mercedes Balaba said in the vernacular in an interview after the session.
Balaba, author of the ordinance, said the City Budget Office has allocated P15 million for its implementation in 2024, providing a P500 monthly pension to an estimated 2,000 indigent PWDs.
However, she clarified that the number of indigent PWDs is still subject to cross-check verification against various lists from the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO), the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Philippine Statistics Authority, and the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO).
"We collate all the data (from the said offices) in order for us to identify the number of PWDs who belong to low-income households," Balaba said in the vernacular.
Under the ordinance, the CSWDO is tasked with carrying out the provisions and shall regularly and incrementally allocate the same amount of budget for the subsequent years of implementation.
Apart from belonging to low-income households, eligible beneficiaries must be one- to 59-years-old since senior citizens have their own social pension under the law.
Prior to the approval of the ordinance, Vice Mayor Jocelyn Rodriguez asked Balaba if the social pension would increase to P1,000, citing the opinion from the City Legal Office that stated the definition of social pension for senior citizens is not less than P1,000.
Balaba said they proposed P500 worth of monthly social pension for indigent PWDs since it is still the first year of implementation. She expressed hope that they could increase the amount in the coming years.
An implementing body composed of different city government offices led by the City Legal Office will spearhead the formulation of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR). The IRR is expected to be finished before the end of this year.
But the CPDO, Balaba said, is set to provide a program of works to the Persons with Disability Affairs Office in order to know how to manage the budget prior to the budget deliberation around September or October.
The ordinance started to be conceptualized in 2019 during the 19th City Council, but it was set aside due to the pandemic.