The City Council on Tuesday passed an ordinance that will grant annual financial assistance to all qualified senior citizens of the city.
“We want all the senior citizens to receive a financial aid using the funds of the city. This ordinance shall make this initiative permanent,” Councilor Ralph Abella, the author of the ordinance, said.
Abella said the city shall give priority to the needs of the underprivileged. “We are yet to determine how much but the funds will be taken from either general fund or from property taxes,” said Abella.
Qualified senior citizens must be 60 years old and above, an ID holder from Office for Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA), and a registered Commission on Elections voter.
“They must be a registered resident of the city because senior citizens in our neighboring cities may come to Davao City to claim our financial aid,” said Abella.
In case of bedridden citizens, they may still claim the benefits if they have the medical certificate or a barangay certification that will prove of his or her residence. They can just sent their duly assigned representatives.
Based on Comelec’s data, there are now 114,490 senior citizens in the city while OSCA’s data reveal that senior citizens in the city are now close to 320,000.
“The financial assistance may be claimed every December,” Abella said.
“We will conduct the necessary study and consultation for this proposed legislation.”
Abella also provided that it is the goal of the city to ensure all senior citizens will be healthier, more active, and be more engaged in the communities, “and one of the ways of achieving this is investing in their health through this ordinance.”
