At least 40,908 senior citizens in Eastern Visayas have yet to receive their 2019 social pension, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) reported on Wednesday.

The number represents 14.8 percent of the 276,807 target recipients for 2019, said Mavis Mae Baoy, the program’s focal person in the region.

As of January. 5, the DSWD has served a total of 235,899 senior citizens – 98,827 in Leyte, 37,203 in Samar, 31,016 in Northern Samar, 30,271 in Eastern Samar, 25,494 in Southern Leyte, and 13,088 Biliran.

Each senior citizen is entitled to a PHP500 monthly stipend but will receive the amount equivalent to 12 months or PHP6,000.

“The payout is ongoing. It was delayed because of the movement restrictions amid the coronavirus disease pandemic and the revalidation of the list due to inclusion of non-eligible senior citizens and double or triple entries in the list,” Baoy said in a statement.

Under Republic Act 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, only 60-year-old Filipino citizens who are sickly, frail, disabled, without regular compensation, pension, or support from relatives can avail of the monthly stipend, which they could use to augment their daily subsistence and other medical needs.

“As of now, we cannot give you the exact number of senior citizens who have been removed from the program since the revalidation and cross-matching of the list is still ongoing. In fact, there are cases that during the direct payout, the money is not released to some beneficiaries if it’s found out that they are non-eligible,” Baoy said.

For the 2020 social pension, the DSWD field office here targets to cover 260,617 beneficiaries in the region.

The payout in different provinces started last December, she said. (PNA)