Legazpi City, Aug. 8 -- Over 221,000 indigent senior citizens in the Bicol Region have received their social pension for 2025, the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Bicol (DSWD-5) said Friday.

Joseph Teston, chief of the Policy and Plans Division at DSWD-5, reported that a total of PHP1.2 billion has been disbursed by the agency.

"The goal of this program is to improve the living conditions of indigent senior citizens by providing a stipend for their daily subsistence and medical needs," he said during a media forum.

Teston added that the remaining allocated funds for the rest of 2025 have been transferred to various local government units (LGUs), which will be responsible for releasing the stipend.

"The funds were trans...