Thursday, November 06, 2008 A basket of goodies for city’s oldies
SENIOR citizens in Cebu City will still not receive the Christmas cash gift promised to them by Mayor Tomas Osmeña before he left for the United States for medical treatment.
But the mayor has not forgotten about them, because the City Government will instead give them a basket of goods each.
Rosalima Cimagala, a member of the Mayor’s Management Team (MMT) told the Cebu City Council in her Executive-Legislative Agenda (ELA) report yesterday that the P1,000 the mayor promised as birthday gift and another P1,000 as Christmas gift of the City for every senior citizen are still “pending.”
“The exact number of senior citizens in Cebu City is still to be determined,” she said, adding that the total amount of P2,000 could only be given once the figure is ascertained.
She said that the estimate is that senior citizens number around 28,000, but that there are those listed by the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs who are not from the city.
So this Christmas, she said, each elderly will receive a “noche Buena basket” during a City-sponsored Christmas party for them on Dec. 17.
City Councilor Jose Daluz III also suggested that instead of trying to verify the exact number of senior citizens, which takes a long time, the City should just have them apply for the cash gift and then investigate each of them.
Councilor Rodrigo Abellanosa said the cash gift is dependent on when the City clinches a sale of portions of the South Road Properties (SRP).
In gatherings with senior citizens when he turned 60 last July, Osmeña announced that the City “will make the first sale of the SRP this year in the amount of P2 billion and a joint venture worth P8 billion.”
He was referring to Filinvest Land Inc. which proposed to buy 10 hectares and enter into a joint venture with the City for 40 hectares of the SRP.
The mayor had told the senior citizens that the revenue will help realize his promise to give P1,000 during each of their birthdays and another P1,000 each during Christmas. (RHM)
