Lawyer prods Cebu City to release balance of P5,000 for senior citizens
TIME TO PAY UP
A lawyer is pressing the Cebu City government to release in full the remaining P5,000 cash assistance for each senior citizen.
With the year about to end, lawyer Reymelio Delute wrote Mayor Michael Rama demanding the release of the balance of the annual P12,000 allowance each elderly resident is entitled to collect.
Delute said he has a right to ask this because he, too, is a registered senior citizen with OSCA Control No. 75278.
Mayor Rama, sensing a political dart behind the request, told reporters he would announce the schedule for distribution next week.
But he also hinted that, like last year’s release, part of the amount may be given next year.
“I’m just wondering why a demand letter was sent. What is he trying to prove? It (release of assistance) will always be a matter of how and it (the decision) belongs to the executive. What’s his problem?” said an exasperated mayor.
Delute is the same lawyer who filed an administrative case seeking to suspend Mayor Rama and several councilors for granting P20,000 calamity assistance for all city officials and employees, including themselves, after supertyphoon Yolanda even though Cebu City wasn’t directly hit by the storm.
Mayor Rama, who has been increasing the subsidy for the elderly over the years, has said before that in 2014 part of the allowance may be given in kind like medicine and food, instead of all cash.
CEBU IS HIGHEST
Cebu City offers the highest payout for senior citizens in Cebu at P12,000 a year.
Mandaue City allocates P3,000 each for its elderly. Half was given midyear. The second half of P1,500 is scheduled for release next week, said Mandaue city public information officer Roger Paller. The release will start with a program in the San Roque parish gym followed by distribution in each barangay in the following days.
In Cebu City, staggered release of the P12,000 allowance for seniors was made this year on Valentine’s Day (P1,000 for 2014 and P2,000 balance from 2013) with P2,000 each released on May 2, Aug. 16 and Oct. 24.
If the balance of P5,000 assistance won’t be given by this month, it can be given next year, said Rama.
He explained that while the amount has been budgeted, there are times when it can’t be released.
“But we will not forget that. December is not yet over. Ngano gud tawn mao may magbuot ang laing taw (Why are other people trying to interfere?),” the mayor added.
Delute, who had previously run for a barangay captain post in Basak San Nicolas under the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK), is identified with the mayor’s nemesis, former Cebu City mayor Tomas Osmeña.
In his recent demand letter, Delute said he that if no payout of P5,000 is made this month, he would file a complaint of grave abuse of authority before the Ombudsman against Rama.
“The mayor voluntarily opens the door of Ombudsman for him to enter if that’s what he does,” said Delute when asked for comment on the mayor’s statement that part of the cash assistance may be given next year.
“Considering that the allowance for senior citizens was included in 2013 budget with certification of the availability of funds from the City Treasurer, releasing said allowance becomes a legal duty to perform than a discretion to exercise,” Delute wrote.
“Hence, consider this letter as a formal and final demand for you to release in full the cash assistance due to all qualified senior citizens not later than December 31, 2014.”
He included in the letter a November 25 news article of another daily quoting City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas as saying that senior citizens may not receive the full balance of P5,000 of their cash aid since the year is almost at an end.
Cuevas was quoted saying that although there is an actual fund for the financial assistance, its release all depends on Rama.
Copies of the letter were sent to Cuevas, City Attorney Jerone Castillo, Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella, councillors Margarita Osmena and Sisinio Andales, the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) and the Office of the Visayas Ombudsman.
“The senior citizens are the eternal spring of the future. Neglecting them is neglecting your duty under the law. A kind of neglect which amounts to, or equivalent with, grave abuse of authority,” Delute wrote.
The city allocated P720 million this year as cash assistance for around 60,000 registered senior citizens in the city.
So far, the city has distributed P7,000 to each senior citizen in the city.
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