Is Elderly Filipino Week the same as the International Day of Older Persons?

No. The United Nations observance is a single day, 1 October, designated by the General Assembly in 1990, while the Philippine week runs from 1 to 7 October and opens on that same date.

When is National Respect for Centenarians Day?

The first Sunday of October, which falls on 4 October in 2026. The Centenarians Act places it inside Elderly Filipino Week rather than making it a separate observance.

Why does the week run October 1 to 7 instead of the calendar's first week?

The 1994 proclamation declares both the period from October 1 to 7 and every first week of October, and the Centenarians Act of 2016 settles the question by naming October 1 to 7. Neither document explains the earlier move from the third week of the month.

Elderly Filipino Week

Next celebratedThursday, October 1, 2026

Every Filipino who reaches 100 is honored on the first Sunday, inside a week when government agencies take service caravans, medical check-ups and legal consultations out to senior citizens nationwide.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated September 3, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEOctober 1-7 (week)

OBSERVED INPhilippines

CATEGORYCulture

SUBCATEGORYAsian Heritage

ORIGIN

Government Proclamation

FOUNDING ENTITY

Office of the President of the Philippines

FIRST OBSERVED

1975

“The 1994 proclamation did not create the week. It renamed one that had run in the third week of October since 1975.

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

Two presidents, two proclamations, one observance.

Proclamation No. 1503, issued by the Office of the President on 29 September 1975 by order of President Ferdinand E. Marcos, set aside the third week of October as Senior Citizens Week. President Fidel V. Ramos signed Proclamation No. 470 on 26 September 1994, which renamed the observance Linggo ng Katandaang Filipino and moved it to October 1 to 7.

Read Proclamation No. 470via Official Gazette of the Philippines

INTRO

Nineteen years older than the 1994 proclamation

Elderly Filipino Week spent its first nineteen years in the third week of October, under a different name. It was Senior Citizens Week, declared for 20 to 26 October 1975 after the Senior Citizens League of the Philippines asked for it. The week Filipinos keep now, 1 to 7 October, is that same observance moved two weeks earlier and renamed.

The proclamation that moved it gives no reason for the change. It amends the 1975 instrument, names the new dates, and leaves the question there.

The new opening day is also the International Day of Older Persons, which the United Nations General Assembly designated on 14 December 1990. The Philippine text cites a different United Nations resolution, one from 3 December 1982 on an international action plan on ageing.

ORIGINS

Elderly Filipino Week history

INTRODUCTION

Alejandro Melchor signed the document that started this week, and he was not the president. As Executive Secretary he issued Proclamation No. 1503 on 29 September 1975 by order of President Ferdinand E. Marcos. Its fourth recital says it is desirable to focus public attention on model senior citizens who continue serving their country and fellowmen.

In 1994 the machinery changed hands. Proclamation No. 470 put the Secretary of Social Welfare and Development in the chair of a national committee, and made the Federation of Senior Citizens Associations of the Philippines its permanent secretariat. Four departments and the Coalition of Services for the Elderly were told to assist it.

CHAPTER 01

From proclamation to statute

In 2016 an act of Congress named the week directly. The Centenarians Act, approved on 23 June, calls it the annual Elderly Filipino Week, October 1 to 7, and declares the first Sunday of October National Respect for Centenarians Day.

That clause did not invent the week. It fixed the dates in law and hung a new statutory day inside them.

CHAPTER 02

A commission of its own

For years the Department of Social Welfare and Development ran the celebration. Its 2016 theme was Pagmamahal at Respeto ng Nakababata, Nagpapaligaya sa Nakatatanda, which the department said emphasises that older persons should be loved, cared for and respected.

Then in 2019 Congress built the sector its own body. Republic Act 11350 created the National Commission of Senior Citizens, a chairperson and six commissioners who must all be at least 60 years old when appointed, with at least two of them women. The commission now runs the week through its regional offices.

CHAPTER 03

The week the state pays

A 2024 amendment turned a single centenarian benefit into a ladder. Filipinos reaching 80, 85, 90 and 95 now receive P10,000. Those who reach 100 still receive P100,000, whether they live in the Philippines or abroad.

The first nationwide payout under that law was held at Malacañan Palace on 26 February 2025, the law's first anniversary.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Senior Citizens Week proclaimed

Proclamation No. 1503 fixed the observance in the third week of October, under an Executive Committee for Senior Citizens Week.

A law defines a senior citizen

Republic Act 7432 set the threshold at 60 years old with an income under P60,000 a year, and the 1994 proclamation later cited it.

Renamed and moved to October

Proclamation No. 470 gave the week its present name, Linggo ng Katandaang Filipino, and its present dates of October 1 to 7.

Named in the Centenarians Act

Congress wrote the week's name and dates into statute and declared its first Sunday National Respect for Centenarians Day.

Senior citizens get a commission

Republic Act 11350 created the National Commission of Senior Citizens under the Office of the President, which now leads the week.

Cash gifts reach four earlier ages

Republic Act 11982 extended the milestone gift to Filipinos turning 80, 85, 90 and 95, at home or abroad.

BY THE NUMBERS

Elderly Filipino Week by the Numbers

9.22M: Filipinos 60 and over, 2020 household count
955,920: Filipinos 80 and over, 2020 household count
PHP 2.9B+: Cash gifts the commission expected to pay in 2025
6,000+: Senior citizens at the 2025 national kickoff

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about Elderly Filipino Week

The 1994 proclamation predicted a doubling by 2000

One of its recitals states that the elderly population is becoming the fastest growing sector of the population and is expected to double before the year 2000.

The utility discount comes with a meter condition

The minimum 5 percent cut on water and electricity applies only where the meters are registered in the senior citizen's own name, and only while monthly use does not exceed 100 kilowatt hours of electricity and 30 cubic metres of water.

The pension increase became law unsigned

The act raising the indigent senior citizen's monthly social pension from P500 to not less than P1,000 lapsed into law on 30 July 2022 without the President's signature.

Seniors were trained as Intramuros tour guides

The 2025 week launched a commission partnership with the Department of Tourism that puts senior citizens through a seven-day training to become accredited tour guides in Intramuros.

The claim rules bend for missing paperwork

Indigenous Peoples without a birth certificate from the Philippine Statistics Authority may submit original or certified true copies of other documents, with validation and endorsement from the commission, and Muslim seniors outside BARMM may present certification from the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos.

Minsan hindi na pinapaupo sa mga bus, o kaya ay binabalewala na lang (Sometimes, older persons are not given seats in buses or they are just taken for granted).

Jorge BanalPresident, Federation of Senior Citizens in the Philippines, National Capital Region chapter

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love Elderly Filipino Week

DELIVERY

338,881 indigent seniors had still not been paid.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development reached 90.88 percent of its first-quarter target for 2026, serving 3,375,834 indigent senior citizens by 1 June. Another 338,881 were still waiting, and to qualify at all a person must have no SSS or GSIS pension and none from any other government agency.

DEMOGRAPHY

One person over 60 for every four children

The Philippine Statistics Authority put the ageing index at 27.6 in 2020, against 23.4 five years earlier. The authority reads that as one person aged 60 and over for every four children under 15.

BENEFITS

The benefits behind it are written into statute

The Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 grants a 20 percent discount and exemption from value-added tax on a listed set of goods and services. Regional offices used the 2025 week to run legal consultations and medical check-ups alongside the ceremonies.

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate Elderly Filipino Week

Join a service caravan in your region

The commission opened the 2025 week simultaneously across 16 regions, which ran caravans of services, clean-up drives and Thanksgiving masses. Ask your regional office of the National Commission of Senior Citizens what it has planned.

Register an older relative in the national database

The commission asks senior citizens to sign up on its website so they are properly recorded on its official master list. The 2024 amendment separately requires it to maintain an elderly data management system covering everyone the cash gifts reach.

START

Start a milestone claim months ahead

The commission encourages seniors or their families to submit applications four to six months before an 80th, 85th, 90th or 95th birthday. Each gift is claimable within one year of reaching the milestone age.

ATTEND

Attend your town's centenarian ceremony

On the week's first Sunday, city and municipal governments award a plaque of recognition and a cash incentive to every resident who has turned 100 in that fiscal year. The size of that local incentive is set by the local government unit itself.

TAKE

Take an elder to a wellness session

The 2025 Metro Manila programme at SM Mall of Asia in Pasay City ran a Zumba session, wellness booths and a lecture on Alzheimer's disease. It drew 612 senior citizens from 13 cities.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know Elderly Filipino Week?

1 / 8

Which instrument declared the week under its present name?

Answer

No. It is officially recognised by presidential proclamation and named in statute, but Proclamation No. 1006, which lists every regular holiday and special day for 2026, carries no October date at all, so it is a normal working week.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

17sources

17primary records

16independently dated

Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines1994-09-26

Proclamation No. 470, s. 1994

The 1994 text that renamed the week and moved it to October 1 to 7.