Solon optimistic on Universal Social Pension for elderly bill passage

Outgoing Albay Representative Joey Salceda said Sunday that there is still enough time for the 19th Congress to pass the Universal Social Pension for all Filipino senior citizens before it adjourns.

The 19th Congress is scheduled to conclude its sessions from 2 to 13 June and the 20th Congress will commence on 28 July, coinciding with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.'s fourth State of the Nation Address.

In a letter addressed to reelected Senator Imee Marcos, a key advocate for the measure in the Senate, Salceda reiterated his strong support for a version of the bill that would provide a monthly pension of P500 for Filipinos aged 60 to 69 and P1,000 for those 70 and older.

The proposal also includes annual inflation adjustments while maintaining the existing P1,000 monthly pension for indigent seniors.

"It is for this reason that I pushed for fiscal reforms such as the VAT (value-added tax) on nonresident digital service providers," said Salceda, who chairs the House Committee on Ways and Means, in a statement.

"We need a national policy framework that eventually moves towards universal basic income, funded increasingly by technology which tends to reduce the need for labor. That way, productivity that results from technological gains is directed towards human welfare," he added.

Salceda noted that he had already discussed the bill with Senator Marcos during the national campaign when they met in Daraga, presenting the fiscal implications and potential funding sources, to which he said she was "quite responsive."

"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 for the Filipino people," stated Salceda, the principal author of the proposal in the House.

He asserted that the measure is both fiscally viable and morally compelling. Salceda submitted a fiscal note to the senator estimating the 2025 cost of the proposal at P88.2 billion, which would cover 10.1 million senior citizens nationwide.

According to Salceda, the proposal can be funded without imposing new taxes. He suggested utilizing P41 billion from rationalized "ayuda" including programs like the Department of Social Welfare and Development's Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD) and Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP).

An additional P47 billion could be sourced through fiscal management mechanisms, such as enforcing dividends from government-owned or controlled corporations, national government savings, and starting implementation in the second quarter.

Salceda explained that the measure aims to consolidate "scattered and politicized cash doles into a clear, rights-based entitlement," making it "more efficient, more humane, and more just." He positioned the universal pension as a "first step toward universal basic income, made increasingly necessary by labor-displacing technologies."

"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," Salceda wrote in his letter to Senator Marcos, dated 15 May.

The lawmaker commended Senator Marcos for her leadership on the issue and pledged to support the measure in the House.

"I will do my part, in the airwaves, through research and by helping secure the votes of our colleagues. This is a unifying cause. The fiscal math is sound. The moral case is undeniable. We can finish this in the 19th Congress," said Salceda.