Senior citizens to get 6 months of pension in advance: lawmaker

About 9.7 million senior citizens will get 6 months of their pension in advance this April to help them cope with the coronavirus pandemic that prompted a lockdown of the entire Luzon and several regions, a lawmaker said Thursday.

Senior Citizens Party-list Rep. Francisco Datol Jr. said he requested the advance pension payment from President Rodrigo Duterte in March. The social welfare department told the lawmaker on Tuesday that his request was approved and that it had downloaded the funds to LandBank, he said.

The agency, he added, would also release the pension that some 3.7 million senior citizens failed to receive last year.

Luzon, home to around half of the Philippines' 100 million people, is on lockdown until April 30 to halt the spread of COVID-19.

The Philippines as of Wednesday confirmed 5,453 cases of the respiratory disease, with 349 deaths and 353 patients who recovered.

• Philippines has most number of coronavirus cases in Southeast Asia: Johns Hopkins tally

Watch Datol's full interview with ABS-CBN News' Ted Failon here.

DZMM, April 16, 2020