Cebu City Councilor Pastor “Jun” Alcover, Jr. | CDN Digital file photo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu City Council has requested various department heads of the city hall, whose personnel are temporarily designated as disbursing officers for senior citizens’ financial assistance, to exert due efforts in distributing the aid to bedridden senior citizens.
Councilor Pastor Jun Alcover, Jr., in a privilege speech during the city council’s regular session on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, conveyed to the council the complaints he received from some senior citizens on the distribution of the city’s financial aid to qualified bedridden senior citizens.
“Ang usa sa mga reklamo na gipadangat mao ang ubang D.O. [disbursing officers], tungod sa kadaghanon sa ilang tahas, ang ubang bedridden senior citizens di na mahatdan sa ilang financial assistance,” Alcover, who is also the chairman of the city’s senior citizen council, said.
(One complain I received is that some disbursing officers, because of the many tasks they have to do, couldn’t give the financial assistance to bedridden senior citizens.)
“To add [to] the problem, instead of distributing it during the intended schedule, some D.O. will just return the money to the City Treasurer’s Office without exerting due efforts to give it to the bedridden senior citizens,” he added.
Under the City Ordinance No. 2453 or “The Annual Financial Assistance to All Qualified Senior Citizens of Cebu City Ordinance,” as amended, qualified indigent senior citizens who are residents of Cebu City are entitled to a monthly financial assistance of P1,000.
The city government registered 4,600 bedridden senior citizens out of the 88,564 total qualified senior citizens for this quarter.
READ: Cebu City senior citizens may claim P3,000 assistance starting March 16
The city’s Office of the Senior Citizens’ Affairs (OSCA) scheduled the cash distribution in the barangays from March 16 to 18, Thursday until Saturday, for the assistance covering January, February, and March this year.
With the OSCA’s lack of manpower, personnel from various city hall departments and barangays have been designated to act as disbursing officers.
Subject to abuse
Unless the senior citizen is completely incapacitated or bed ridden, he or she must personally claim their benefits at the designated distribution areas.
Association of Barangay Councils President, Councilor Franklyn Ong noted the city government does not allow authorization of family members to claim the assistance of bedridden senior citizens because it was subject to abuse.
Association of Barangay Councils President, and Councilor Franklyn Ong noted the city government does not allow authorization of family members to claim the assistance of bedridden senior citizens because it had been a subject to abuse.
“Those who were not able to collect, they are given 10 days to come to the city hall, but in fact, even during those times sauna ma abuse gihapon kay mawagtang lang kay naay muingon, ‘wala man mi kakuha, naa mi authorization. Somebody made that,” he said.
He then urged disbursement officers to coordinate with the barangay in distributing aid for bed ridden seniors.
“Now, if the disbursement officer, without putting any colors, they will continue to practice nga naay muuban nga usa ka disbursement officer unya ang barangay mo provide og sakyanan, katultol that. Mahatod g’yod na sa barangay,” he added. /bmjo