Davao City, Agusan Sur seniors get cash grants

Some 4,648 older person-beneficiaries of the Social Pension Program from Agusan del Sur and Davao City recently received their Unconditional Cash Transfer (UCT) grants amounting to P2,400 each from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

The UCT, which is provided under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law, provides cash subsidies to 10 million indigent Filipino families/individuals to help them cushion the effects of the adjustments in the excise tax of petroleum products and sweetened beverages.

The beneficiaries include 4.6 million Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program recipients, 3 million social pensioners, and 2.4 million households listed under the Listahanan.

The UCT grant is just an added assistance to help the poor cope with the increase in prices of basic commodities and it is not meant to address all their needs, DSWD Secretary Virginia Orogo said.

“The Department is currently holding continuous pay-out activities nationwide so that our indigent senior citizens can get their UCT cash grant. We know how important the grant is to them, especially for their medicine and food needs,” said Orogo.

The UCT cash grant distribution in Davao and Agusan recently was part of the Department’s goal to finish providing the grants to the three million indigent older persons the soonest time possible.

In Davao City, the 1,331 social pensioners were from barangays Centro, Gov. Vicente Duterte, Lapu-Lapu, San Antonio, and Ubaldo of Agdao District.

According to DSWD Davao Region, succeeding pay-outs will be undertaken for the other beneficiaries in partnership with the respective local government units as there are a total of 250,200 social pensioners in the region.

Meanwhile, the 3,317 indigent older persons from Agusan del Sur came from the municipality of San Francisco.

“While DSWD is fast-tracking the pay-outs for the social pensioners, the Department is simultaneously working on validating the remaining 2.4 million UCT cash grant beneficiaries identified through our Listahanan poverty database. Rest assured that we are doing our best to expedite the provision of the UCT cash grant, without prejudice to the quality of our service,” Orogo said.

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