LESS than a month before the election, the Cebu City Council will tackle a proposal to include more senior citizens as beneficiaries of the P12,000 annual financial aid to the elderly.
The proposed amendatory ordinance, which seeks to include senior citizens who turned 60 years old in 2013 in the list of qualified beneficiaries, was filed last Feb. 12.
It will be tackled for final deliberation during the regular session on April 16.
Councilor Eugenio Gabuya Jr. pushed for the amendment of Section 5 of the ordinance, which grants P12,000 annual financial assistance to qualified senior citizens.
Under the amended Section 5, seniors who turned 60 in 2013 are qualified to get the aid if they can present a voter’s certification from the Commission on Elections and any two documents that can attest that the senior was born and raised in the city.
The documents can be a birth certificate stating that the senior citizen is born in Cebu City or a baptismal certificate that shows the senior was baptized in any church located in the city.
It could also be a marriage certificate showing that the senior was married in the city or elementary or high school diploma of any school in the city.
Under the existing ordinance, only those elderly who reached 60 years old in 2010 are qualified to receive the financial assistance.
The City had set a cut-off on who are qualified to receive the aid to prevent abuse of the financial assistance.
A public hearing on the proposed amendment was conducted last April 2, where organizations such as the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs and some City Hall offices, including the City Treasurer’s Office, endorsed the inclusion of more senior citizens as beneficiaries. (RVC)