In the pursuit of timely and quality facilitation in serving the indigent senior citizens of Caraga Region, the Social Pension Program Management Office (SPPMO) of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Field Office Caraga, conducted its 2nd Semester Paymaster’s re-orientation via Google Meet last Friday, Septe mber 17, 2021.
Paymasters considered as frontlines who needs to be equipped and updated with the latest directives and other pre-requisites. With this, the said course is the appropriate venue for the paymasters to get re-oriented on the emerging issues and concerns relevant to the program implementation
The activity aims to undertake the following: to re-orient the paymasters with the Memorandum Circular No. 04 series of 2019 or knows as the “Omnibus Guidelines for the implementation of the Social Pension for Indigent Senior Citizens Program”; to identify gaps in the program implementation and its corresponding recommendations; to refresh and remind the paymasters of their roles and responsibilities before, during and after the pay-out; to share the newly released Memorandum from the Office of the Secretary regarding the conduct of Social Pension; and, to discuss other issues and concerns relative to the program implementation.
The Regional Social Pension Focal Person, Ana T. Semacio, Social Welfare Officer II, spearheaded the virtual paymaster’s re-orientation along with the discussants Cherry Mae T. Borja, Project Development Officer I, and Cheenee B. Dy, Administrative Officer II.
“Thank you paymasters for the persistent support in the provision of stipend to the indigent seniors in the region. But, I would just like to remind you to keep the payrolls free from getting cluttered as to the completeness of the attachments of Pagtugot forms and such,” Dy said.
More so, the fake news scattered around that forced seniors to get vaccinated so they can get their pension was raised and given immediate action. The DSWD underscored that seniors are highly encouraged to get vaccinated to be protected against COVID-19 but the decision is up to them and is not part of the guidelines of the provision of social pension.
“In that matter, we’ll include in the letter sent to the LGUs about that fake news so the beneficiaries will be at ease and so, to prevent any further misconceptions,” Semacio said.
The Department, through its Facebook Page DSWD Caraga has already released an announcement, notifying the public on the false information that eventually caused confusion on the beneficiaries’ end and provide clarity on it.
The activity concluded with agreements on the quality delivery of service through the enhanced and effective working performance while fostering good and harmonious relationship among paymasters since issues and concerns were addressed, both related to matters about the beneficiaries and paymasters.
