At least 79,925 indigent senior citizens in Caraga Region have received over PHP239.7 million in social pension in the first four months of the year, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said Wednesday.

“The 79,925 indigent senior citizens already received PHP3,000 each during the period,” Marko Davey Reyes, of the DSWD-13 information office, told the Philippine News Agency.

Under the social pension program, indigent senior citizens are entitled to PHP500 monthly pension.

“The PHP3,000 they received represents the pension they are entitled to the first six months of this year, that is from January to June 2021,” Reyes said.

In a separate statement Wednesday, DSWD-13 said that as of April, a total of 23,134 senior beneficiaries were already served in Agusan del Norte; 34,808 in Agusan del Sur; and 21,983 beneficiaries in Surigao del Norte.

The distribution of the social pension, the agency said, is being conducted in coordination with the local government units (LGUs) in Caraga Region.

The 79,925 seniors served during the period represent 53 percent of the 170,000 targeted beneficiaries for the social pension program in the region, DSWD-13 said.

Conception Cordita, 87, a resident of Dapa town in Siargao Island, was elated upon receiving her PHP3,000 pension.

“I cannot contain the happiness I felt. We depend on the pension we get from Social Pension since our children are already living far from us. Thank you DSWD for your thoughtfulness to us seniors,” Cordita was quoted in the dialect as saying.

Another beneficiary from Barangay Cabawa, Zenaides Solana, recognized the sacrifices of the DSWD personnel in reaching out to indigent senior citizens.

“Thank you so much DSWD for all your sacrifices to give me my pension. We do not have any source of income to sustain our daily needs. To get through the day, would sometimes I borrow money or get some goods from neighbor’s store then pay them once I receive my pension,” Solana said. (PNA)