Challenges of getting the centenarian cash gift

Turning 100 years old is a big milestone in any country, more so in the Philippines where centenarians are promised a P100,000 cash gift from the national government through the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD). Some local government units (LGUs) even give a separate P100,000 cash gift. But, as my family experienced, the process of applying for and actually receiving that money is not that simple.

My mother turned 100 in August and lives in Quezon City (QC), which gives its centenarian residents its own P100,000 cash gift. Information about this QC gift can be found online, and calls and emails to the LGU’s Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (Osca) are promptly replied to by staff.

But for the DSWD, it was not that easy getting the basic information we needed, including where to submit the application.

Based on my family’s experience, here are some tips for those whose loved ones have turned or are soon turning 100.

Get the documents proving the centenarian’s date of birth way ahead of time. The documents to be submitted must be the original. Prepare two sets if your LGU is also providing a cash gift. You will file separately for the LGU gift and the national government gift.

The basic requirement is a birth certificate. I suggest getting one certified by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), although some LGUs accept those issued by the civil registry office. My mom has no copy of her birth certificate, and the civil registry records in her province were destroyed during World War II. We had to file a delayed registration of birth, and this required providing proof from her contemporaries, the barangay where she was born, and the pastor of the church she went to. The registrar then issued a birth certificate and passed this on to the PSA, which issued a certified copy. The entire process took months because there was much back-and-forth. A lot of patience was needed, but because we started doing this mid last year, we avoided getting stressed.

Because her birth was registered late, my mom’s PSA-certified copy of her marriage certificate was also required for the cash gift applications. We already had this on hand years ago and were easily able to get an additional copy.

Prepare the centenarian’s government-issued IDs, plural. A senior citizen ID is widely accepted. If the centenarian lives in an LGU that awards a centenarian cash gift, make sure the senior ID was issued by that LGU. If the senior ID was issued by a different LGU, it must first be canceled by that LGU; only then can you apply for a new one from the centenarian’s current LGU.

For the QC cash gift, the QC Osca has an application form online, with the required documents, so we filled this out, had my mom sign it at home, and brought it to Osca together with the requirements. Two days after her birthday, two Osca staff went to our house for the visitation, which is aimed at making sure that the applicant is indeed still alive. It took just a few minutes and they said my mom could expect to receive the cash gift in one to two months’ time.

The application for the QC cash gift was an easy process, and the expeditious schedule for the visitation was a welcome surprise. The one for the national government’s cash gift was not quite as straightforward. We phoned the DSWD hotline and were told that the application should be filed with the DSWD local (LGU) office.

But we received information from elsewhere that we should file with the DSWD regional office. So we went to the DSWD National Capital Region (NCR) office in Manila, filled out a form and submitted the required documents. They said they could not say when the cash gift would be released to my mom because the DSWD NCR’s budget “quota” for 130 centenarians this year had already been filled, and that in fact there were already 200 applications this year just in NCR alone. We were told not to worry because the P100,000 would definitely be released, they just did not know when: “Siguro po kapag mag-release ng additional si President [Marcos].” When I asked what would happen if my mom died before the gift is released, they said: “Don’t worry po, makukuha ng family yung pera.”

But isn’t the gift meant as a recognition of the centenarian and should be for the centenarian to enjoy, while she is still alive?

We have been told by friends who have gone through this process that “it takes months” for the money to be released by the DSWD.

We had hoped the DSWD would, at the very least, send someone for the visitation, to get it out of the way while my mom is still well—like what QC Osca did. When we did not receive any update, we phoned DSWD NCR to ask when they could schedule it. They promised to “follow it up” but reiterated that there was no more budget for the cash gift.

As of publication, we are still waiting for a DSWD visitation schedule.

Note: The 2024 General Appropriations Act has allocated P186 million for Filipino centenarians this year.

Stella O. Gonzales is an editor at the Financial Times in London.