LEGAZPI CITY – House Ways and Means Committee chair, Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Sarte 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 May 15 letter to Senator Imee Marcos, one of the key Senate advocates of the measure, Salceda reaffirmed his full support for a version of the measure 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 like VAT on non-resident 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,” he explained.
Salceda said he discussed this earlier with Senator Marcos, at the start of the national campaign at Francisco’s Café in Daraga town, where 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, principal author of the proposal in Congress. He will step down as congressman at the end of the 19th Congress on June 13.
Salceda said the measure is both fiscally viable and morally compelling. He submitted to the lady senator, who was reelected last May 12, a fiscal note estimating the 2025 cost of the proposal at P88.2 billion, covering 10.1 million senior citizens nationwide.
He emphasized that the proposal is fundable without new taxes and can be supported from the following: –P41 billion in rationalized “ayuda”, including Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers (TUPAD), Ayuda sa Kapos ang Kita Program (AKAP), and other duplicative or leakage-prone programs;
-P47 billion in fiscal management mechanisms, including government-owned or controlled corporation (GOCC) dividend enforcement, national government savings, and a Q2 (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,” he added.
“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.
The lawmaker commended Senator Imee Marcos for her leadership and pledged to support the measure in the House.
“I will do my part—in the airwaves, through research, and by helping secure the votes of our colleagues. This is a unifying cause. The fiscal math is sound. The moral case is undeniable. We can finish this in the 19th Congress,” he said.
