FACT CHECK: Message promising P1,000 monthly pension for all seniors not from NCSC

Claim: All senior citizens will receive a P1,000 pension per month as mandated by the National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC) under Republic Act (RA) 11350.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: A chain message claiming that the NCSC will provide a monthly P1,000 pension to all senior citizens is circulating on Facebook and through personal messages via Messenger. 

The copy-pasted announcement said that senior citizens would receive the pension after they complete their registration on the NCSC website. Additionally, it claimed that jurisdiction over the Office of Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) has been transferred from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to the NCSC. 

Notably, some users who posted the claim on their accounts appear to be barangay officials, leading some Facebook accounts to believe that the message indeed came from the NCSC.

The facts: The supposed message is fake, the commission announced in a post on its official website on February 28. The chain message circulating on social media is also an old claim, which the NCSC had earlier debunked in a public advisory posted on February 28, 2023.

The NCSC had previously said the claims in the chain message are “distorted news” and used the commission’s logo to make it appear that it is a legitimate NCSC announcement.

Monthly pension: Contrary to the claim, only indigent senior citizens or those who are “frail, sickly or with disability, and without pension or permanent source of income, compensation or financial assistance from his/her relatives to support his/her basic needs” are entitled to the P1,000 monthly pension, as stipulated in Republic Act 11916, or the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens Act.

The monthly pension will be released by the DSWD, not NCSC as claimed in the message.

According to DSWD’s implementation guidelines for the program, potential beneficiaries are identified through referrals and assessment by the Barangay Senior Citizens Association, OSCA, and DSWD field offices.

Wrong law: RA 11350, or the National Commission of Senior Citizens Act, is the law that established the NCSC, not the law mandating the P1,000 monthly financial assistance to indigent senior citizens.

RA 11350 also did not contain any provision transferring jurisdiction over the OSCA from the DSWD to the NCSC. The commission reiterated that OSCA was never under the DSWD, but is under the supervision of each local government unit. 

Registration for pensions: In an email to Rappler on February 29, NCSC acting executive director Emmanuel Daez and project development officer Eric Matnog clarified that registration to the NCSC database does not translate to receiving financial assistance.

“Ang pag-register po sa database ng NCSC ay hindi po nangangahulugan na may matatanggap na ayuda or financial assistance. Ang layunin po ng registration ay para ma-account ng NCSC ang bilang ng mga nakatatanda nationwide at maging basehan para magkaroon ng naaayon at maayos na pagpapatupad ng mga programa,” they said.

(Registration with the NCSC database does not translate to receiving any financial assistance from the NCSC. The purpose of databanking is to account for the number of older persons nationwide real-time and use the information as reference for development and promotion of NCSC programs).

Debunked: Rappler has debunked false claims on cash grants supposedly for senior citizens:

• FACT CHECK: Indigent seniors to get P1,000 monthly pension, not P2,000
• FACT CHECK: Bill granting cash gifts to seniors aged 80, 90 not yet law
• MISSING CONTEXT: Senior citizens entitled to P6,000 yearly from DSWD
• HOAX: P6,000 ‘monthly’ pension for senior citizens – Larry Chavez/Rappler.com

Larry Chavez is a graduate of Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program. This fact check was reviewed by a member of Rappler’s research team and a senior editor. Learn more about Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program here.

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