THE Cebu City Government is set to release P2,000 in cash aid to senior citizens on Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020.
The financial assistance for the elderly living in the city’s 80 villages covers the first two months of the year.
Ernesto Atuel and his wife Esmeralda, the elderly couple living in the mountain village of Cambinocot, are looking forward to get their cash aid on Feb. 29, saying they need the money in buying their vitamins and maintenance medicine.
Eligible
The Atuels are among the more than 80,000 elderly who are eligible to receive the cash aid.
Mayor Edgardo Labella tasked City Administrator Floro Casas Jr. to monitor the cash aid distribution, which will happen in barangay halls, gyms and schools.
Office of Senior Citizen Affairs (Osca) acting executive director Jeffrey Ocampo said around 100,000 senior citizens are holders of Osca identification cards. Of Cebu City’s elderly, only 82,000 are qualified to receive P12,000 in annual cash aid as the rest were transferees.
Amended ordinance
The City saw an increase of the cash aid beneficiaries following the City Council’s decision to allow senior citizens who registered as voters in 2013 to avail themselves of the assistance.
On June 4, 2019, the City Council approved the amendatory ordinance sponsored by Councilor Eugenio Gabuya Jr. which mandates that elderly people who had been registered in the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from 2011 until 2013 will get the financial aid from the City.
City Ordinance 2453, which was authored by Labella when he was still a councilor, states that only the elderly who registered in Comelec in 2010 and earlier were allowed to get cash assistance of P1,000 each month. Those senior citizens who transferred their Comelec registration to Cebu City in 2011 and later are not allowed to get the financial aid, but they can still avail themselves of discounts from establishments if they have an identification card issued by the Osca.
Casas urged the beneficiaries to bring their Osca cards, so they can get their aid right away. All the personnel of the City Hall’s 26 departments will be deployed to the barangays to distribute the cash aid, said Casas. (PAC / KAL)