Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
‘Quezon City, Metro Manila

NINETEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

2485

HOUSE BILL NO.

Introduced by AKO BICOL PARTYLIST REPRESENTATIVE
RAUL ANGELO D. BONGALON:

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This bill seeks to grant universal social pension for senior citizens, whether or
not they are indigent. To provide inclusive and sustainable coverage, this bill
proposes a minimum of One Thousand Pesos (Php1,000.00) to all senior
citizens, subject to review every two years, taking into consideration such
factors as inflation and availability of funds.

Older persons are increasing in absolute numbers and proportion as the
overall population increases, Based on 2010 estimates, older persons aged 60
years and over account for 6.23 million or 6.7% of the total population. Life
expectancy at birth has risen from 55 years in the early 1950s to around 69 years
today, while an individual reaching the age of 60 today can expect to live for
another 17 years. This increase in life expectancy coupled with reductions in
fertility rates translates to an aging population. According to population
projections undertaken by the Philippines Statistics Authority, the number of
Filipinos over the age of 60 is set to nearly triple in the next 30 years, from 7.6
million in 2015 to 22.6 million in 2045. Over the same period, the proportion of
the total population over the age of 60 will double from 7.5 to 15.9%.

While this trend is something to be celebrated, growing older can only be truly
considered a success if our elders can live their later years with dignity and
security. Despite constitutionally mandated social security for senior citizens,
not all older people receive financial support from children. When they do, it
is often inadequate to cover basic needs such as health expenditures. This is
mainly due to widespread poverty and vulnerability of Filipino families, with
working adults forced to make a trade-off between supporting older people
and investing in young children. Depending completely on their children for
financial support also threatens the dignity of older persons - many of whom
fear becoming dependent, and feel too proud or ashamed to ask for support.


Many factors have led to the economic insecurity of older Filipinos. These
include the challenges of securing a job as an individual ages because of ill
health and disability, family responsibilities, and age discrimination in the
workplace.

Moreover, most Filipinos cannot currently expect to receive a pension in their
old age. In 2016, only a quarter of senior citizens (29%) received pensions based
on previous working history (SSS, GSIS, and other pensions). There are two
major barriers to expanding coverage of these pensions. First, the majority of
Filipino workers are working in informal employment (estimated between 70
and 75%). Second, many workers simply do not have sufficient disposable
income to save for a pension. Furthermore, receipt of a pension doesn't
guarantee income security as a third of SSS retirees (34%) receive less than PhP
2,000 per month, and a half (52%) receive less than PhP 3,000 per month.

The Social Pension Program which was first implemented in 2011 by virtue of
Republic Act No.9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 has made a
significant dent in reducing the coverage gap. From 134,000 beneficiaries in
2011, the program expanded to 2.8 million or 33% of the total population of
indigent senior citizens in 2017. However, with the coverage of these schemes
combined, there would still be around 3 million or 38% of senior citizens with
no pension at all.

Ina review conducted by the Coalition of Services of the Elderly (COSE) and
Help Age International, the social pension for indigent seniors has significantly
increased the income and expenditure but it remains limited. Two main issues
limit the impact of the social pension.

First, the means-tested nature of the scheme excludes-by design-a large
proportion of vulnerable older people whose incomes are too meager to
contribute to social security earlier in their lives, and who fail to meet the strict
eligibility criteria for the current social pension. Targeting errors also mean
many of the very poorest older people are left out. A key finding of the research
is that there are major issues to be addressed in the process of targeting and
validating older people. A common observation by both implementers and
older people was that many older people recipients appear not to be the
poorest, while many of the poorest are being missed out. One major issue
identified is that the Listahanan database -which is based on household data -
does not adequately measure issues related to the vulnerability of individual
older people. The increasing role of LGUs in the targeting process is unlikely
to resolve issues of accuracy and may create additional challenges. One is that
the highly subjective nature of decision-making can leave space for clientelism
and corruption in the targeting process. Another issue is that LGUs struggle to
mobilize the necessary human resources to undertake the time-intensive
process, which can lead to older people being enrolled without adequate
validation.

Second, the benefit level of PhP 500 is low relative to both Filipino and
international benchmarks, providing a limited level of income security. The
benefit of Php 500 amounts to less than half (41%) of the 2014 food poverty line
(PhP 1,225 per month) and just 28% of the national poverty line (PhP 1,756).


The inadequacy of the benefit is exacerbated by the fact it is not indexed to
inflation. With rises in prices over the last 5 years, the real value of the social
pension benefit has depreciated from PhP 500 when RA 9994 was passed into
law to approximately PhP 415 - a 17% reduction in the real value of the benefit,

Older persons have contributed immensely to the nation in all manner of ways
throughout their lives: by paying taxes, contributing to the growth of the
economy, and raising future generations of Filipinos. Thus, this bill seeks to
amend the social pension provision of RA 9994 and expand the coverage of
social pension to all senior citizens while indexing the current benefit amount
to inflation.

BONGALON,



Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
‘Quezon City, Metro Manila

NINETEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

2485

HOUSE BILL NO.

Introduced by AKO BICOL PARTYLIST REPRESENTATIVE
RAUL ANGELO D. BONGALON:

AN ACT GRANTING UNIVERSAL SOCIAL PENSION TO SENIOR
CITIZENS, FURTHER AMENDING REPUBLIC ACT NO. 7432, AS
AMENDED BY RA 9994, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE "EXPANDED
SENIOR CITIZENS ACT OF 2010"

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in
Congress assemibled:

SECTION 1. Number (1), Paragraph (H), Section 5 of the Republic Act
No. 7432, as amended by Republic Act No. 9994, otherwise known as the
"Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010", is hereby further amended to
read as follows:

"Section 5. Government Assistance. - The government shall
providethe
following:
xxx
(h) Additional Government Assistance

(1) Social Pension

" [Indigent senior] ALL SENIOR CITIZENS shall be entitled
to a monthly stipend amounting to A MINIMUM OF One
thousand pesos (Php1,000.00) to augment the daily
subsistence and other medical needs of senior citizens,
subject to a review every two (2) years by Congress, in
consultation with the DSWD.

PROVIDED, THAT SUCH SENIOR CITIZEN DOES
NOT RECEIVE APENSION OF MORE THAN THREE
THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED (PHP3,500.00) FROM
THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE INSURANCE SYSTEM,


THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM, AND OTHER PUBLIC
OR PRIVATE SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEM"
xxx

SECTION 2, Separability Clause. - If any provision of this Act is
declared invalid or unconstitutional, the other provisions not affected
thereby shall continue to be in full force and effect.

SECTION 3. Repealing Clause. - All laws, decrees, executive orders,
or rules and regulations contrary to or inconsistent with the provisions
of this Act are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.

SECTION 4. Effectivity Clause. - This Act shall take effect fifteen
(15) days from its publication in the Official Gazette or in at least two (2)

newspapers of general circulation.

Approved,