(MANILA BULLETIN)

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte has welcomed the rollout of the P10,000 cash gift to elderly beneficiaries of a 2024 law granting the bonanza to all senior citizens once they reach 80, 85, 90 or 95 years of age.

The Marcos administration has allotted P2.95 billion for the initial release this year of the cash windfall for octogenarians and nonagenarians under Republic Act (RA) No. 11982, or the “Expanded Centenarians Act of 2024,” said Villafuerte, one of the authors of this law.

Citing a report by the National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC), Villafuerte said that the government was set to hand out the financial reward this 2025 to a total of 275,000 octogenarians and nonagenarians, regardless of their financial status.

These beneficiary-seniors include the 1,079 who received their cash gifts during the simultaneous inaugural distribution under RA No.11982 at Malacañan Palace and other places last Feb. 26, and some 7,000 more who will have received their bonuses by end-February, Villafuerte said.

“Such cash gifts of P10,000 for the elderly when they turn 80, 85, 90 or 95, are on top of the P100,000 bonus due every one of them when they  becomes a centenarian or reach the age of 100, as provided for by RA No.10868, or the ‘Centenarians Act of 2016,’” said the National Unity Party (NUP) president.

“Our senior citizens ‘deserve all the love, care and protection’ so much so that the government has been working hard to provide for their needs and benefits,” Villafuerte said, quoting President Marcos.

At the Palace event, the President distributed cash gifts to select senior citizens identified by NCSC, some of whom were veterans of World War II.

The NCSC said it was to complete the distribution of cash gifts to 7,759 senior-beneficiaries by the end of February, or a year after President Marcos signed RA No. 11982.

The United Nations (UN) projects the population of Filipinos aged 60 and above to exceed 10 percent from 2025 to 2030.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the population of the Philippines was over 109 million as of 2020. Of the figure, 9.24 million were seniors. About a tenth of these senior citizens—some 950,000–were octogenarians and nonagenarians.

These octogenarians and nonagenarians will still get another P100,000 when they reach 100 years old, as provided for in the original law benefitting centenarians, noted Villafuerte.

“Seldom do Filipinos reach the age of 100, so what better way for the national government and the Congress to show our country’s appreciation for the significant contributions of our grandparents and other seniors to society during their relatively more productive years than to give them a cash windfall not only when they become centenarians but even when they turn 80, 85, 90 and 95 years old,” Villafuerte said.