Recto: Use DSWD savings for cash gift to centenarians this year

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Recto: Use DSWD savings for cash gift to centenarians this year
'For as long as the transfer complies with recent Supreme Court ruling on budget augmentation, I suggest that it should be pursued, says Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto


MANILA, Philippines – Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto has proposed the use of savings of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to fund the P100,000-cash gift to centenarians starting this year.

Recto authored the Filipino Centenarians Act in the Senate, which President Benigno Aquino III signed into law a week before he stepped down from office.

Recto said the P100,000-cash gift per centenarian can be given starting this year with funds from the P4-billion savings of the DSWD from its completed projects.

“For as long as the transfer complies with recent Supreme Court ruling on budget augmentation, I suggest that it should be pursued,” he added.

Recto said that based on the database of the DSWD, funding for the implementation of the law would require about P355 million, which was not included in the DSWD’s proposed 2017 budget of P129.8 billion.

Recto also said since Republic Act No. 10868 was signed just days ahead of the new administration, the allocation for the cash gift was not included in the 2017 national budget which, he added, was “nobody’s fault.”

Recto  said that Congress should appropriate funds for the full implementation of the Centenarians Act in the 2017 budget.

“And when it does, it should see to it that it will use the right census figures in computing the amount required,” Recto said.

He said that according to the database of the DSWD, there are 3,552 centenarians in the country, but this needs to be validated.

So bigyan natin ang kayang bigyan this year, at ‘yung balanse at ‘yung magiging 100 years old sa 2017, isama natin sa 2017 budget (So let’s give all those who can be given [the cash gift] this year, and the balance and those who will turn 100 years old in 2017, let’s include that in the 2017 budget),” Recto said.

Under the law, centenarians will receive a P100,000 cash gift from the government and “a personal letter of felicitation from the President.”

The DSWD will lead the signing of the IRR of the Centenarians Act on Monday, September 26.

Other agencies involved in the implementation of the law are the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), Department of Health (DOH), and Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO). – Rappler.com

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