BAYOG, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines – At least 25 indigent senior citizens from this remote mountain town of Zamboanga del Sur comprised the first group of recipients of the P500 monthly social pension in Western Mindanao given by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), it was learned here recently.

DSWD Region 9 social welfare officer II Pacita Aso said the 25 elders here were part of the more than 8,000 poor senior citizens in the region initially identified by the national agency as qualified to receive the monthly pension, retroactive January.

Aso said the local indigent senior persons was handed P3,000 each in check covering the period from January to June in appropriate rites held at the Municipal Hall here recently.

The amount will augment the indigent pensioners’ capacity to meet their daily subsistence, medical needs, and other urgent necessities, Aso quoted DSWD Secretary Corazon Soliman as saying.

Aso added that during the same occasion, the municipal government here also received from DSWD another check worth P1,877,260 representing the second tranche fund for the payment of the supplemental feeding program (SFP) of local children.

This town’s SFP benefited close to 1,000 children, Aso said, adding that the program’s first tranche amounting to P443,400 was released late last June.

In a related development, Mayor Randy Climaco of Tungawan, Zamboanga Sibugay, announced that DSWD recently implemented in his locality three priority projects - the KALAHI-CIDSS, Self-Employment Assistance sa Kaunlaran (SEA-K), and Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program that has benefited some 4,000 indigent families for the past two years.