40-year-olds in the Philippines to be considered as Senior Citizens to avail of Senior discounts?

Is it true that a 40-year-old individual can now be considered a senior citizen and receive a pension in the Philippines? This trending news has been circulating for weeks, so I decided to check where this viral post or issue originated from.

It came from a YouTube vlog titled “Good news age 40 and above can now pension from the largest bank in the Philippines,” which garnered over 300k views and counting.

However, it turns out this is fake news. The truth is, what’s being discussed is the lowering of the retirement age requirement for the military.

One of the bills proposed in 2022 by Senator Ramon B. Revilla Jr. is to lower the retirement and senior citizen benefits age from 60 to 56 years old to claim a pension. If this bill is passed, individuals could avail of a 20 percent discount on medicines, hotels, restaurants, and more, including monthly water and electricity bills from the government.

According to Rappler, the Department of Finance, under Secretary Benjamin Diokno, expressed support for changing the military retirement and pension system for soldiers. Instead of retiring at 60 years old, military and uniformed personnel can now receive a pension at the age of 57. Mandatory contributions for active personnel and new entrants to the military are also required to make the Government Service Insurance System more efficient.

It’s not true that the age for senior citizen benefits is being lowered to 40; the caption is deceiving, and it seems like the creator just wanted to go viral. Unfortunately, it was picked up by meme jokes and pages. So, we need to be careful about the news or meme-shared posts we see before reacting because it might be fake news.