TACLOBAN CITY– About 32 senior citizens from Tacloban City received for the first time their cash gift from the National Commission on Senior Citizens Regional Office 8 – some received their money with tears of joy, others with calm and poise.
Flordeliza Lugnasin, 80, who has been living alone for many years now in her humble home in Utap village, Tacloban City, was tearful when she opened her envelope containing her assistance in cash together with a certificate, a token for her resilience and enduring legacy and support for her well-being.
“This is a big help to senior citizens like me who live alone. This amount can at least sustain my medication for the next few months,” Lugnasin, who received P10,000, said during the ceremony on Feb. 26.
Another senior citizen beneficiary, Soledad Medalla, 95, who was the oldest among the 32 recipients said the assistance has been long awaited. She vowed to make good of her health so she may be able to reach her centennial year, qualifying her for the P100,000 cash gift under the Centenarian Act.
The NCSC conducted a nationwide cash gift distribution Wednesday marking the first year since the Expanded Centenarians Act of 2024 came into law.
In Tacloban, the inaugural cash gift distribution also came with a Serbisyo Caravan where the senior citizens availed of services from participating agencies such as the Department of Agriculture, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Department of Information and Communication Technology, and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Pursuant to said law, R.A. No. 11982, Filipinos, reaching the “milestone ages” of 80, 85, 90 and 95, whether residing in the country or abroad, are eligible to receive the P10,000 cash gift, and P100,000 upon reaching 100 years old, expanding the benefits, formerly limited to centenarians.
According to the United Nations, from 2025 to 2030, elderly Filipinos aged 60 and above are expected to make up at least 10 percent of the country’s total population, which makes the Philippines an aging society.
In Eastern Visayas, older persons comprise 6.5 percent of the total population which is considered as nearing the threshold for an ageing population, a demographic shift that a government should be prepared for.
(ACR/PIA Leyte)
