Reevaluating seniors cash aid

On the surface, the proposal by Cebu City Hall’s Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) to issue a shorter notice to recipients of the annual P12,000 cash aid may appear unreasonable.

OSCA chief Domingo Chavez told the City Council in last week’s hearing that their office is also proposing to prohibit beneficiaries from issuing authorization letters to their representatives in case they cannot be physically present due to their medical condition.

Instead of 10 days, Chavez also proposed that the  extension given to seniors who fail to receive their cash aid on the appointed date be reduced to five days. He also said the schedule for distribution should be made two to three days ahead rather than in the last week of March, June, September and December.

Sounds rather harsh until Chavez produced records that showed that the number of beneficiaries rose from 25,000 in 2008 to 67,000 last year. Now maybe that can be explained as either more of the city’s existing population getting older and adding to the numbers of the seniors who may have extended their lifespan with the city’s cash aid or the obvious, which is that there are more senior citizens transferring to Cebu City on hearing about the cash aid.

And who doesn’t want to receive P3,000 cash every quarter of the year? Chavez noted that a number of those recipients live outside Cebu City, some even outside Cebu province and only come to the city when they receive news about the cash distribution schedule.

Also, the OSCA cannot determine whether the authorized representatives of the seniors will give the money directly to the beneficiaries or pocket it themselves hence Chavez’s proposal that it be prohibited altogether.

There was a proposal for the city to issue ATM cards to the seniors so they can withdraw through ATM rather than travel all the way to their respective barangay halls to claim the cash directly from City Hall authorized staffers.

While useful, we wonder if the city government has the budget for that and whether the seniors can be bothered with using said ATM cards. That said, the OSCA proposals don’t sound so unreasonable after all and should merit due consideration from the City Council, which has lately been promising increased cash aid to other underprivileged sectors like the persons with disabilities (PWDs).

Like the Social Security System (SSS) brouhaha over the proposed pension increase, public officials should not be so quick to promise generosity for the sake of earning brownie points while not carefully evaluating whether the current revenue system can accommodate their proposed changes.

Councilor Sisinio Andales was quick to dismiss Chavez’s proposals, saying it runs counter to the ordinance that pledged to allocate cash aid to the seniors.

But the city’s responsibility to their senior citizens, while not to be abandoned, can only be extended so far to the detriment of other important concerns, like services and projects to their constituents which also need funding and which should have been implemented a long time ago.