The Office of Senior Citizens Affairs is supposed to be the main government authority tasked to look after the welfare of senior citizens. So important is its supposed mission that the law creating it specifically required that it be created in every municipality and city in the country. But has the OSCA really performed its mandate other than listing senior citizens and issuing them identification cards?
From the sad experiences of senior citizens, it is clear there are still establishments, not just in Cebu City but elsewhere, that do not know how to go about dispensing entitlements to senior citizens. Take for example how to identify a senior citizen. Most establishments believe an OSCA-issued ID card is the only one that suffices. Nobody has made them aware, certainly not the OSCA, that the law (RA 9994) also allows a passport or other document or ID establishing nationality and age.
Then there is the matter of granting a 20 percent discount and exemption from value added tax that is enshrined in the law but followed more in the breach by commercial establishments, especially restaurants. In most cases, the discount and exemption is applied only to what the restaurant "thinks" the senior citizen is able to consume by himself and not the entire purchase even if the senior citizen made the purchase all by himself and is not in the company of anybody.
That is clearly an arbitrary redefinition of what the law intends and takes away from the senior citizen the benefit of the doubt that is supposed to be his in the first place. When a senior citizen makes a purchase by himself, the privilege should apply to the entire purchase and not to what the establishment "thinks" should apply. To do otherwise is to impute malice to the senior citizen, such that he could be a acting as a "dummy" for others unqualified for the privilege.
Yet, despite the clarity in the letter and intent of the law in this regard, violations continue to deprive senior citizens their full legal entitlements owing either to the ignorance of establishments about the law or their outright refusal to follow its provisions, emboldened by the fact that there appears to be no real effort on the part of government, particularly the OSCA, to monitor violations and to go after violators.
Since the enactment of the law and the establishment of the various OSCA offices in every town and city in the country, we have yet to hear of an establishment being even just admonished for law violations. And that is because the government has not really been serious and aggressive in promoting and protecting the welfare of the country's senior citizens. Has the OSCA even provided posters and flyers to every applicable establishment as reminders of their obligations under the law?
The only real priority of government when it comes to senior citizens is to make them happy by giving them yearly cash gifts, which they regard as a favor that must be repaid come election time. What government does not realize is that full protection and promotion of senior citizens" welfare comes only when all provisions in all applicable laws pertaining to them are strictly complied with. Anything short of that and government is merely paying lip service.