Senior citizens seeking pension increases have been assured by both chambers of Congress of funding for the increase to P1,000 of their social pension from P500 under Republic Act 11916 which lapsed into law on 30 July.

Members of the Senate and House bicameral conference committee convened last 25 November to reconcile the disagreeing provisions of the 2023 General Appropriations Bill or GAB.

Pension upgrades for senior citizens through the National Commission of Senior Citizens amounting to P5 billion are included in the House's P77-billion institutional amendments for pro-people programs in the Marcos administration's P5.268 trillion national budget for the fiscal year 2023.

Representative Rodolfo Ordanes welcomed the move of the Senate and House. "The quest has been arduous but we have succeeded in our relentless appeals for the welfare of indigent seniors," he said Thursday.

The lawmaker said that the funding provision would be Congress' year-end holiday gift to indigent seniors.

"It is a matter of survival for most impoverished seniors," he added.

Ordanes earlier pressed the budget department to use unprogrammed funds in the proposed national budget for 2023 to fund an increase in the monthly social pension of indigent senior citizens.