Senior citizens’ financial assistance may be delivered house to house

Felisa V. Marabiles, 84, of sitio Sindulan in barangay Mabolo smiles in this CDN file photo as she receives the P3,000 financial assistance for Cebu City’s senior citizens at the Mabolo Sports Complex. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella wants the financial assistance for the city’s senior citizens to be delivered to their homes.

He said this would be the best way to ensure social distancing and protecting the senior citizens who are the most vulnerable to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

“Kanang distribution sa financial assistance, ato ning ihatag sa mga barangays. Ato ni idistribute aron sila (barangay) na ang mo-identify unsaon paghatag,” said the mayor.

(The distribution of financial assistance, we will give this to the barangay. We will distribute it to them so the barangays will now identify how to distribute.)

The city government promised that the March and April financial assistance worth P2,000 will be distributed during the first week of April, but with the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the distribution has become a challenge.

READ: Financial assistance for Cebu City senior citizens, PWDs to be released in April

“We want the distribution to be as soon as possible, but we have to practice social distancing,” said Labella.

Distributing the assistance to each house would also take time and would entail detailed preparations for the barangays, so the mayor urged the public to be patient.

He said the barangays are being asked to carefully design a distribution plan amidst the ECQ.

Previously, the city tried to distribute it in March so it could help provide for the senior citizens and PWDs during the general community quarantine, but the Commission on Audit (COA) advised against it, saying it cannot distribute financial assistance in advance. /rcg