ILOILO CITY—The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Western Visayas has requested an additional P2.4 million for centenarians who have not yet received their P100,000 cash incentives.
In an interview on Thursday, Judith Tanate, DSWD 6 focal for persons with disabilities and older persons, said the additional budget is intended for 24 centenarians in the region who are supposed to be beneficiaries of the incentive.
Six of the centenarians turned 100 years old in 2016, while 18 of them turned 100 years old in 2017. However, they were not included in the list of the agency.
Tanate said they are still waiting for the approval by the DSWD central office.
She said they would immediately distribute the incentives once the request would be approved and the budget would be downloaded to their office.
Tanate said the 24 centenarians earlier visited their office to include them in their list after they learned about the incentive.
They have already submitted the necessary requirements needed by the agency and have also been validated by DSWD 6.
Earlier, the DSWD 6 identified 360 centenarians in the region in 2016 and 27 centenarians in 2017.
To date, Tanate said 348 of the centenarian-beneficiaries in 2016 and all of the 27 centenarian-beneficiaries in 2017 received their incentive.
The DSWD is yet to distribute the cash incentive for 12 remaining beneficiaries who are all in Negros Occidental. They have yet to fully comply with the needed requirements of the agency.
She expressed hope to fully distribute the remaining cash incentives of the 12 centenarians before the end of this year.
The cash incentive given to centenarians is mandated under Republic Act 10868, or the Centenarians Act of 2016.