List of senior citizens readied

CEBU, Philippines - Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) head Catherine Yso had already endorsed to the City Treasurer’s Office the master list of all senior citizens of Cebu City who are entitled to receive P3,000 each not later than December 8.

Yso said there are 44,220 senior citizens from the city’s 80 barangays who are accredited by the city and each of them is entitled to receive cash assistance of P2,000 as their birthday gifts and P3,000 as Christmas gifts.

All of them already received their birthday gifts a few months ago and Mayor Michael Rama instructed City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete to see to it that the distribution of the remaining P3,000 can be done simultaneously in all barangays on December 8.

Yso said she already submitted the list of beneficiaries for the City Treasurer’s Office to speed up the preparation of the payroll. The amount to be distributed reaches P132,660,000.

Rama had warned his men that he does not want a repeat of the previous distribution, wherein the P2,000-cash incentives were given only when he arrived at the venue.

Because of that, several senior citizens complained because they were waiting at the barangay hall since early in the morning, but the mayor arrived only before lunchtime.

“Karon sugdan na ang pagpanghatag bisan dili pa ako maabot,” Rama earlier told the reporters.

Rama had recommended to the City Council that the budget for the senior citizens be increased from P200 million to P300 million for 2012 because of the increasing number of elderly in the city who also wish to avail of the benefits.

Yso also said her office personnel already started revalidating their records of persons with disabilities (PWD’s) or the differently-abled persons, for them to receive their cash assistance at P2,000 each by December.

If a senior citizen is also a PWD, he will not be allowed to collect the P2,000 unless the records show that he has not received the cash assistance for the elderly. (FREEMAN)