When the law creating the NCSC, RA 11350, was promulgated in 2019, it took almost three years before the senior citizens (SCs) understood and appreciated its relevance.

It was only after learning that the Senior Citizens Act, RA 7432, was wanting, did the SCs truly recognize the need for the funds and programs held by the DSWD, be transferred to the NCSC.

Before all others, the absent provision of creating a Senior Citizens Commission, in RA 7432, became glaring when laws for other sectors, like the Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and Women, were promulgated, wherein the very law defining the sector or adopting its charter, as in “Magna Carta”, created the respective Commissions.

The Law on IPs, RA 8371, created the NCIP, while the Magna Carta on Women, RA 9710, renamed and strengthened the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW).

The real problem started in 2010, when RA 9994, the Expanded Senior Citizens Act, was promulgated, providing a herculean task with corresponding Billions of Pesos in funds, to the DSWD, for the SC sector.

After implementing the Social Pension (SocPen), of giving billions to millions of indigent senior citizens, for a decade, some elements in the DSWD, are adamant to yield the functions to the NCSC, as mandated by RA 11350, to the extent of mongering that the NCSC is incapable of implementing, among others, the SocPen program.

As a case in point, a staff of the DSWD FO3, prevaricated during the Regional Conference of SCs, in Pampanga, claiming that NCSC cannot implement the SocPen, because they hired only two Contract of Service (CoS) staff for the whole Region 3.

Perhaps, she’s ignorant of the provision in the MOA between the DSWD and the NCSC, that all CoS staff of the DSWD, working for SocPen, will all be transferred to the NCSC, that to hire additional staff prior to transition, is a waste of taxpayers’ money.

The other inadequacy is the failure of the DSWD to promulgate the guidelines in the registration and accreditation of Senior Citizens Organizations (SCOs), mandated in RA 9994.

To be specific, the IRR of RA 9994, which was promulgated by the DSWD itself, stated that the Head of the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA Head)) of every City or Municipality, shall be appointed by the LCE (Mayor), from the three (3) nominees, presented by the general assembly of the “DSWD accredited Senior Citizens Associations”.

The DSWD does not accredit a Senior Citizens association or organization if said accreditation is only for the purpose of nominating the OSCA Head.

It accredits entities that provide services to senior citizens and nominating the OSCA Head is not

considered “a service”, in contemplation of said provision. Therefore, pursuant to the IRR, that the DSWD promulgated, these general assemblies of federation of SC organizations in the cities and municipalities nationwide can not legally comply with the said provision.

The NCSC, on the other hand, despite the pendency of the transition, has already promulgated the Guidelines for the Registration and Recognition of SCOs, which will now register and recognize the thousands of SCOs in the 42,027 Barangays nationwide, including those without geographical identity, giving justice to the above stated proviso of the IRR or RA 9994, which was promulgated by the DSWD.

The efforts of some elements in the DSWD of undermining the NCSC, to the extent of mongering that the Commission is incompetent in implementing the programs for the SCs, specifically the mandates of RA 9994 and RA 10868 (SocPen and Centenarian), will ultimately boomerang that might damage the integrity of the Department.

When in the end, the functions for SCs, inadequately performed by the DSWD, with thousands of workers, is finally implemented by the NCSC, with a handful of employees only, it can be likened to the history of the First Battle of Panipat, 1526, when Babur’s army of only 12,000 soldiers, decimated the army of Sultan Ibrahim Lodi, numbering more than 100,000 soldiers, killing 40,000 of them during the battle.

The underhand efforts of some personalities to insidiously fragment the effectiveness of the NCSC, is doing the exact opposite. That is, the support of the senior citizens is growing, instead of diminishing.

For the sake of the more than ten million SCs nationwide, eagerly waiting for the DSWD to turn-over the functions to the NCSC, the DSWD is encouraged to walk the talk of truly caring for the senior citizens.