Cebu City approves additional P1,000 cash aid for PWDs

PERSONS with disabilities (PWDs) in Cebu City will receive an additional P1,000 on top of their P5,000 financial assistance this year.

The Cebu City Council has approved a resolution by Councilor Lea Japson, providing the additional P1,000 to the last tranche of the PWD assistance this month.

During the same regular session of the City Council last week, the council also approved a resolution by councilor Eugenio Gabuya, Jr. asking the executive department’s Local Finance Committee (LFC) to increase the proposed budget for the cash assistance to senior citizens next year to P807.6 million from the current P720 million to cover the increase in the number of qualified senior citizens.

Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) chief Dr. Ester Concha earlier wrote to Japson, who heads the council’s committee on social services, asking for the additional assistance.

She said their office has savings of up to P13.5 million which can be used for the additional assistance.

“We targeted to give the P5,000 cash assistance to 12,000 PWDs this year. But based on our records, there were only 10,168 who were able to avail of the assistance,” Concha said in an interview.

Of the P5,000 cash assistance for this year, the city government has already released P4,000.

Concha said the remaining P1,000, and the additional P1,000 will be released hopefully before Christmas Day.

Meanwhile, the council wants to also increase the yearly allocation, currently at P12,000, for senior citizens in the city.

During the recent budget hearings for the 2016 annual budget, Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) head Domingo Chavez disclosed to the council that while the city has been releasing the cash assistance to around 60,000 qualified senior citizens, there are around 7,300 qualified seniors who are still in the waiting list.

The P720 million proposed allocation is only good for 60,000 senior citizens.

To have enough for 67,300, the city needs to allocate P807.6 million.

“In the proposed 2016 annual budget of Cebu City, the allocated amount for the financial assistance of the qualified senior citizens of Cebu City stays and remains at P720 million in spite of the increase in number of qualified senior citizens,” read Gabuya’s resolution.

“There is a dire need to increase the allocation for the financial assistance of senior citizens in the 2016 annual budget,” it further read.