THE country will observe the first official National Centenarians on October 2, but funds for cash gifts for 100-year-old Filipinos pursuant to a new law have not been included in the 2017 budget.
Senate Minority Leader Ralph G. Recto said this prompted him to prod both Malacañang and Congress to correct the oversight.
Recto authored the Filipino Centenarians Act in the Senate, which was later sponsored by Sens. Nancy Binay, Juan Edgardo Angara and Francis Escudero for floor debates. Former President Benigno S. Aquino III signed it as Republic Act (RA) 10868 on June 23—a week before leaving office.
The bill, originally penned by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, was first vetoed by Aquino until a revised version got the presidential nod on the second try.
Under RA 10868, centenarians will receive a P100,000 cash gift from the government and “a personal letter of felicitation from the President.”
“In short, a treasury check and birthday card from President Duterte,” Recto said.
But because the law was signed seven days “before the changing of the guards,” the allocation for the cash gift was not included in the 2017 national budget, Recto said, stressing that “nobody is at fault here.”
Recto said the cash gift “can, in fact, be given this year,” with funds to be sourced from the P4-billion savings of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), from 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 said.
The money can also be taken from the Contingent Fund of the President, Recto added.