Senior citizens to get jobs soon

CEBU, Philippines —  More than 7,000 senior citizens in Tuburan, Cebu will soon benefit the Tulong Panghanapbuhay para sa Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers program after a partylist group has forged a partnership yesterday with the Department of Labor and Employment, local government unit of Tuburan and Cebu Technological University-Tuburan to initiate the work-for-pay program for senior citizens.

Probinsiyano Partylist Ronnie Ong said that his partylist is the one coordinating with various institutions for the employment of abled-senior citizens.

“Many of our citizens continue to live in abject poverty because of the lack or total absence of economic opportunities for them.  They have discounts on food, medicine, transportation and even entertainment but what’s the use of all these perks if our senior citizens do not have the money to spend? This is the reason why we are now doing this program and we hope to replicate this all over the country,” Ong said.

Tuburan Vice Mayor Aljun Diamante said, of the 7,000 senior citizens of his town, around 50 percent of these are indigent senior citizens or those who have no pension are priority in this program.

Initially, 15 senior citizens in the town will be employed at CTU-Tuburan for 15 days receiving the minimum wage and other benefits.

“After 15 days, another batch of senior citizens will be employed hangtud ang tanan nga identified indigent senior citizens ang maka-trabaho gyud,” said Diamante.

Ong said that senior citizens who will be hired to work will do tasks that are important but not physically strenuous.

They would be asked to commit at least three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon.

Employment will be given priority to senior citizens who live around the various program venues and their salaries will be drawn from DOLE’s TUPAD allocation.

Last Thursday, Ong and DOLE representative Jerome Alam signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with officials of the CTU-San Francisco, led by Campus Director Dr. Zandro Perez, to formalize their partnership in providing special employment for senior citizens.

The MOA signing was also attended by San Francisco Mayor Alfredo Arquillano Jr.

Ong and Alam also signed a similar MOA with officials of CTU-Danao City, led by campus Director Dr. Rose Mary Almacen, and witnessed by former Congressman Red Durano VI and Danao Vice- Mayor Thomas Mark Durano.

Ong is also pushing for the institutionalization of this special work-for-pay program by filing House Bill 5362 or the Senior Citizens Employment Opportunity Act to ensure the automatic employment allocation for Filipinos aged 60 years old and above.

The bill aims to ensure that senior citizens whose annual income is below the poverty threshold as determined by the Philippine Statistic Authority are given priority employment through job matches provided by the DOLE and the National Commission on Senior Citizens.

The private sector is also encouraged to hire senior citizens and in return, they shall be entitled to an additional tax deduction from their gross income equivalent to 70% of the total amount paid as wages to senior citizens subject to compliance or the pertinent provisions of the Internal Revenue Code.  GAN (FREEMAN)