BACOLOD CITY—“What is 20 percent if we don’t have the 80 percent to realize it?”
A group of senior citizens said referring to the 20 percent discount on goods and services that they are entitled to receive under Republic Act 9994.
Teodoro M. Tomas, regional president of the Federation of Senior Citizens Association of the Philippines (FSCAP), said that only less than 30 percent of the elderly now are enjoying this privilege as majority of them are marginalized.
“Less than 30 percent of the senior citizens are adequately provided. The 20 percent discount is not enough if you don’t have the remaining 80 percent to realize it,” he stressed.
Worse, Tomas added there are even those who are not yet holders of senior citizens identification cards. An elderly is required to present his/her original senior citizen ID card before he/she can avail of discount privileges.
FSCAP said that in Western Visayas, they have 77,480 members and 76,422 of them of senior citizens ID card holders. The group is now working hard to reach out to all the elderly and ensure they are all registered and holders of senior citizen’s ID.
The group is pushing for livelihood assistance for senior citizens, including free hospitalization and scholarship programs for their qualified dependents.
Presently, indigent senior citizens aged 77 years and above are receiving monthly stipend of Php 500 from the Department of Social Welfare and Development through its Social Pension Program. The program aims to improve the living condition of the poor elderly people through augmentation of their capacity to meet their daily subsistence and medical requirements, by reducing incidence of hunger and by protecting them from neglect, abuse or deprivation.
FSCAP said it is sad to note that out of the 77,480 senior citizens in Western Visayas, only 18,505 of them are covered by the Social Pension Program. But Judith Marte, DSWD VI’s focal person on social pension said they are working on constantly increasing the program’s coverage every year. In fact, additional 1,399 new social pensioners will be added with the number of beneficiaries expected to increase to 19,904 this year.
Total funds released as social pension in 2012 amounted to Php102,744,000.000, covering the qualified beneficiaries in all 133 local government units in the region.
Beneficiaries of the social pension were identified through the National Household Targeting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR) and have undergone evaluation and assessment before they were enrolled into the program./DSWD6/Wenna A. Berondo