Caloocan senior citizens get P500 subsidy

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) released over the weekend the P500 ‘Katas ng VAT’ financial assistance to at least 620 senior citizens in Caloocan City.

Mayor Enrico Echiverri said the senior citizens who benefited from the cash subsidy were from the city’s 63 barangays who were screened and approved by the DSWD and was coursed through the local Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA).

Echiverri said the subsidy “would allow senior citizens to purchase food, medicines or some other important needs.”

He said that under the program, only senior citizens 70 years old and above, dependent or belonging to a family, whose income is within or below the poverty threshold, and are not covered by any private or government agency retirement benefit could qualify for the subsidy.

Funding for the program is derived from value-added tax (VAT) collections, the mayor said.

The DSWD will distribute subsidies for the elderly in Malabon on Nov. 19; Mandaluyong, Nov. 20; Muntinlupa, Nov. 21; Parañaque, Nov. 25; Pasig, Nov. 26; Las Piñas, Nov. 27 and 28; Manila, Dec. 2; Marikina, Dec. 3; and Taguig, Dec. 4.

DSWD Secretary Esperanza Cabral said 65,544 senior citizens in Metro Manila will benefit from the one-time subsidy.

The DSWD started distributing the subsidy in Makati, Pateros, San Juan and Quezon City last Tuesday. – Pete Laude, Helen Flores