Six Social Pension beneficiaries in Zamboanga Peninsula who reached the age of 100 years old celebrated their Centenarian year recently.
Among them were Vicente Macrohon Llledo and Diego Bautista Robillo of Zamboanga City who just turned 100 years old last April and May, respectively.
The DSWD personnel and social workers of the local government unit on Monday, June 15, 2020 visited the centenarians in their residence to formally honor and award the cash gift worth 100,000 together with the felicitation letter in the presence of the immediate family members.
Born in 1920, Llledo and Robillo has been a beneficiary of Social Pension program of the DSWD since 2011.
While Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens program is the additional government assistance in the amount of Five Hundred Pesos (P500.00) monthly stipend to augment the daily subsistence and other medical needs of indigent senior citizens as indicated in the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 or RA 9994, the Republic Act 10868 or known as “Centenarians Act of 2016” shall recognize all Filipinos who reach the age of one hundred (100) years old, whether residing in the Philippines or abroad. They shall be honoured with a Letter of Felicitation from the President of the Philippines congratulating the celebrant for his or her longevity and a Centenarian Gift in the amount of one hundred thousand pesos (P100,000).
From the twenty seven (27) centenarians recorded in the registry of DSWD for the 1st and 2nd Quarter, 24 of these were already honored while the 3 remaining centenarians are expected to receive their cash gift any time before the month ends. From these records, 8 of which are male while 19 others are female. The oldest was 109 years old, female centenarian from Bayog, Zamboanga del Sur.The following are the number of centenarians in Region IX for 1st and 2nd Quarter of 2020: Zamboanga Del Norte -11; Zamboanga Del Sur-6; Zamboanga Sibugay Province-4 and Zamboanga City-6.
The DSWD project development officer and social workers of the local government units shall continue to monitor the centenarians to ensure that the money intended for them shall be used for their basic essentials like food, medicines and other necessities. The DSWD likewise encouraged all its centenarians to open a bank account to ensure proper monitoring of the cash utilization. ##