CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu City government is set to distribute the fifth tranche of the annual financial assistance to registered senior citizens in the city, on the same date as Mayor Michael Rama’s birthday.
The 60,000 registered senior citizens will receive P2,000 each on October 28, which will also be Rama’s 61st birthday.
The report was confirmed by Domingo Chavez, the head of the City Hall’s Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs.
He said their office, together with the city’s Department of Social Welfare and Services, will hand over the fifth batch of the P12,000 per beneficiary annual financial aid, which is usually distributed in a staggered basis.
In a separate interview, City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas said they have prepared around P120 million from the city’s resources for the aid.
The financial aid for the elderly is in line with City Ordinance 2417 or the Annual Budget Ordinance. For 2015, the city government allocated P720 million for senior citizens.
Each qualified senior citizen will be given P2,000 on Wednesday while the distribution of the last tranche (P3,000) will be on December.
Last year, senior citizens received only P10,000 from the P12,000 annual cash aid. The remaining P2,000 was distributed in January 2015.
On the same date, the senior citizens also received the first batch (P1,000) of their 2015 financial assistance.
According to the OSCA Financial Distribution Inquiry website, only 26,426 (or 47.08 percent) from the 56,131 registrants were able to claim last January.
In April, P2,000 was given for the second distribution where 38,761 (or 64.6 percent) from the 60,000 qualified beneficiaries were able to claim their money.
Three months after, the senior citizens received P2,000 for the third tranche of the P12,000 annual cash aid. This was in July when at least 49,258 (or 82.1 percent) senior citizens claimed their cash aid.
In the recent distribution, at least P2,000 was again handed out to the qualified seniors comprising of 53,516 (or 89.21 percent) from the 59,991 claimants last September.
Meanwhile, the OSCA division said that they will not be accepting senior citizen transferees, particularly those who are not natives in Cebu City.
The new policy, Chavez said, will have to be implemented after the office learned that most of the 60,000 beneficiaries are not from Cebu City while others are not registered voters in the city.
He further said, at this time, they will enforce more stringent regulations to determine the applicants who wish to qualify as beneficiaries of the city. —/ATO (FREEMAN)