Free maintenance meds for seniors starting January 2025 – Garcia

Photo for illustrative purposes only | FILE PHOTO FROM SAN MARCELINO/ PIO (2021)

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Over 90,000 senior citizens in Cebu City will receive free maintenance medicines starting January 2025.

This comes after Mayor Raymond Alvin Garcia announced plans to revive the city initiative to support the health needs of the elderly. He said that this effort will specifically target chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and arthritis.

“Mao na nga sunod tuig, mosaad ko kaninyo atong gibutang sa budget nga next year. January, magsugod na ta og hatag og everyday maintenance medicine sa atoang mga kaigsoonan unya mo ingon dayon si maam, ‘’Di na ta mamalit’,” Garcia said in a recent barangay assembly in Barangay Tinago.

(That is why, next year, I will promise you that I will include that in the budget nezt year. In January, we will start releasing the everyday maintenance medicine of our fellow Cebunanos then ma’am will say that ‘We need not buy them.’)

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“Ayaw na mo og palit, kay ato na nang sugdan sa Enero, kay ato na man nang nabutang sa budget for next year,” he added.

(Don’t you buy (maintenance medicine) because we will start that (free maintenance medicine) in January, because we have already included that in the budget next year.)

P70M for medicines

The program’s budget allocation for 2025 includes P70 million dedicated to the “Drugs and Medicines-Preventive Maintenance and Nutrition Program,” part of a larger P1.1 billion fund set aside for senior citizen services.

Managed by the Department of Social Welfare and Services and the City Health Department, the program will deliver daily medicines to seniors upon presentation of a valid prescription, providing much-needed relief to many low-income households.

This initiative also reinstates a system previously used by former mayors Tomas Osmeña and Edgardo Labella, where barangay health workers delivered medicines straight to seniors’ homes.

Make medications more accessible

Garcia said this distribution system would be revived to make medications more accessible for elderly residents, particularly those with limited mobility.

The mayor further announced that December will bring additional financial assistance for seniors covering the last three months of 2024, while barangay workers, including tanods and health aides, may also receive a P5,000 Christmas bonus pending city council approval.

Garcia has proposed a total budget of P17.9 billion for 2025. The budget plan allocates the largest share, P2.4 billion, for personnel services, followed by P1.1 billion for financial aid to senior citizens, P400 million for barangays, P550 million for garbage collection and disposal, and P450 million for socialized housing.