Republic of the Philippines
House of Representatives

Quezon City

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL NoD 038

Introduced by HON. RODEL M. BATOCABE, HON. ALFREDO A. GARBIN, Jr. and
HON. CHRISTOPHER S. CO

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”

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 Five Hundred Pesos (Php500) 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 in proportion as 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 ageing 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 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

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expanding coverage of these pensions. First, the majority of ino 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
pension doesn’t guarantee income security as a third of SSS retirees (34%) receive less
than PhP 2,000 per month, and 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 significant
dent in reducing the coverage gap. From 134,000 beneficiaries in 2011, the program
expanded to 2.8 million or 33% 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.

In a review conducted by the Coalition of Services of the Elderly (COSE) and
HelpAge 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, but 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 validation of 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 miss 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 1,758). 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 the PhP 500 when RA 9994 was
passed 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, by contributing to the growth of the economy and
by 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

In view of the foregoing, the approval oom is earnestly soug!

A\carain Jr. | CHRISTOPNER S. CO

RODEL M. BATOCABE ALFREDO


Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF THE REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

HOUSE BILL No,__9038

Introduced by HON. RODEL M. BATOCABE, HON. ALFREDO A. GARBIN, Jr. and
HON, CHRISTOPHER S. CO

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
assembled:

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 provide the

following

XXX
(h) Additional Government Assistance
(1) Social Pension

“[lndigent-senior] ALL SENIOR citizens shall be entitled to a monthly stipend
amounting to A MINIMUM OF Five hundred pesos (Php500.00) 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 ANY
PENSION FROM THE GOVERNMENT SERVICE INSURANCE SYSTEM,
THE SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM, AND OTHER PUBLIC OR PRIVATE
SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEM”

x x x

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.