Salceda: Enough time to pass pension bill

LEGAZPI CITY — Outgoing Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda believes there's enough time to pass the Universal Social Pension for all Filipino senior citizens in the last two weeks of the 19th Congress.

In a letter to reelected Sen. Imee Marcos, one of the key Senate advocates of the measure, Salceda reaffirmed his full support for a version that grants P500 per month to all Filipinos aged 60 to 69, and P1,000 per month to those aged 70 and above, with annual inflation adjustments — all while maintaining the existing P1,000 per month for indigent seniors.

"It is for this reason that I pushed for fiscal reforms such as the VAT (value-added tax) on nonresident digital service providers. We need a national policy framework that eventually moves towards universal basic income, funded increasingly by technology which tends to reduce the need for labor. That way, productivity that results from technological gains is directed towards human welfare," the Committee on Ways and Means chairman said in a statement Sunday.

Salceda said he already discussed the bill with Marcos at the start of the national campaign when they met in Daraga.

He presented the fiscal implications and the sourcing of funds, and "she was quite responsive."

"We are down to the last two session weeks. If there is a time to do this, it's now. This is a legacy we can afford to leave for the Filipino people," said Salceda, the principal author of the proposal in Congress.

He said the measure is both fiscally viable and morally compelling.

He also submitted to the senator a fiscal note estimating the 2025 cost of the proposal at P88.2 billion, covering 10.1 million senior citizens nationwide.

The proposal is fundable without new taxes and can be supported through P41 billion in rationalized "ayuda" (government aid), including the Department of Social Welfare and Development's Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (Tupad) and Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP); and P47 billion in fiscal management mechanisms, including government-owned or controlled corporation dividend enforcement, national government savings and second quarter implementation start.

Salceda said they are "consolidating scattered and politicized cash doles into a clear, rights-based entitlement. It's more efficient, more humane, and more just. The measure is positioned as a first step toward universal basic income, made increasingly necessary by labor-displacing technologies."

"This is the logic behind taxing foreign digital giants. As technology replaces labor, we must capture productivity and return it to people in the form of social dividends. A universal pension for the elderly is where we start," Salceda said in his letter to Marcos.

The lawmaker commended Senator Marcos for her leadership and pledged to support the measure in the House.