Seniors’ cash assistance to be released today

CEBU, Philippines -  After a few months of waiting, senior citizens of Cebu City will finally receive their P2,000 cash assistance today.

The distribution of the cash aid will start at 8 a.m. until 12 p.m. in the different barangays of the city.

“Atong i-dungan ang north and south (districts). Ang first hour ra man ang daghan,” said city administrator Lucille Mercado.

Mercado said conducting the distribution of cash aid the whole morning for the two districts is lesser hassle than distributing the cash aid the whole day – north district in the morning and south district in the afternoon or either way.

“Mobalhin pa, mao pay i-set up, naa nay dagan taw mas samok na hinuon. Imbis madali malangay-langay na hinuon kay mag set up pa ka,” Mercado said.

With the expected distribution today, the city government has already distributed P5,000 out of the total P6,000 cash aid to around 58,000 registered seniors.

This distribution is already the third round for this year with the first distribution in February when the seniors received P3,000, which included the P2,000 balance for last year and  the P1,000 for this year.

The next round was in the month of May amounting to P2,000.

Mercado said there is a possibility that the promise of Mayor Michael Rama to give a total of P12,000 cash will be pursued.  Early this year, Rama announced that half of the P12,000 will be in cash and the other half will be in kind.

“Katong 50 (percent cash) 50 (percent in kind), iya ra sad tong plano if acceptable to the seniors but as of now maayo man ang collection naa man tay kwarta.Ang importante gusto niya tan-awn unsa reaction. Of course agad-agaron sad nato atoang budget pero so far wala ta maghuna-huna ana nga dili na ihatag,” she said.

Further, the head of the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs, Rolando Llaguno, said that they are now very strict in the distribution. In fact, all the concerned departments are closely coordinating with each other.

He revealed that there have been senior citizens who are not official residents of the city but are receiving cash aids.

He said that yesterday, Pamutan Barangay Captain Ronaldo Labitad told him that there is a cash aid recipient in his barangay who is not an official resident of the city.

Llaguno said they are now gradually taking off non-city residents on the list for cash aid beneficiaries.  —/ATO (FREEMAN)