Salceda to Senate: Pass bill on universal pension for seniors
As the 19th Congress enters its last two session weeks, outgoing House ways and means committee chair and Albay Rep. Joey Salceda appealed for the passage of a universal social pension for senior citizens “as a legacy that we can afford to leave the Filipino people.”
In a letter addressed to Sen. Imee Marcos, one of the key Senate advocates of the measure, Salceda reaffirmed his full support for the House-approved version of the bill which, if passed, would grant P500 per month to all Filipinos aged 60 to 69, and P1,000 per month to those aged 70 and above, with annual inflation adjustments.
The House of Representatives in July last year approved House Bill No. 10423, or the Act to Maximize the Contribution of Senior Citizens to Nation Building, Grant Benefits and Special Privileges, and for Other Purposes, on third and final reading after receiving 232 votes.
The bill, authored by United Senior Citizens party list Rep. Milagros Aquino-Magsaysay, has since languished in the Senate.
“We are down to the last two session weeks. If there is a time to do this, it’s now,” Salceda said.
“I will do my part-in the airwaves, through research, and by helping secure the votes of our colleagues. This is a unifying cause. The fiscal math is sound. The moral case is undeniable. We can finish this in the 19th Congress,” he added.
‘Social dividends’
Salceda, an economist, estimates that the proposed bill would cost the government around P88.2 billion covering 10.1 million senior citizens nationwide. However, he stressed that this was “fundable” without new taxes and can be supported through P41 billion in rationalized social welfare programs as well as P47 billion in fiscal management mechanisms, including national government savings.
“We’re consolidating scattered and politicized cash doles into a clear, rights-based entitlement. It’s more efficient, more humane and more just,” Salceda said.
He further positioned the measure as a first step toward universal basic income, made increasingly necessary by labor-displacing technologies.
“This is the logic behind taxing foreign digital giants. As technology replaces labor, we must capture productivity and return it to people in the form of social dividends. A universal pension for the elderly is where we start,” he said.
Congress will resume session on June 2, though it is expected that lawmakers would be busy with preparations for the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. It would then adjourn sine die on June 13.
