CATARMAN, Northern Samar– Personnel from the Department of Social Welfare Development (DSWD) Regional Office 8 assisted its local office during the five-day payout of social pension for the beneficiary senior citizens in this town on December 21.
The senior beneficiaries received a P500 monthly social pension covering the third and fourth quarters of the year or in the total amount of P3,000.
Municipal social welfare officer Irmina Delorino said the number of beneficiaries of the social pension from the 55 barangays of Catarman is now at 4,399 from the previous 3,999.
“We still have a lot of qualified senior citizens who are waiting to be included in the social pension. We ask them to be patient because we depend on the allocation from the national government. We already submitted their documents to the DSWD regional office,” she said.
Hilda Bivar, 66, a widow from Barangay McKinley, said that she is grateful that she has been receiving the pension for the past three years now.
She said that the money that she has received is used by her to buy her daily needs like medicines and food.
Ginpapalit ko man iton bugas, ngan bulong kay anaemic ak…nakakasuporta man gihapon labi kay nagsasayuan manla ak may kanya-kanya na pamilya an ak kabataan. (I use my pension to buy rice and medicine for my anemia… it supports me especially that I’m living alone now as my children have their own families), she said.
(EUGENE M. ENANO)
