The City Council, during last Monday’s regular session, approved on first reading a proposed ordinance making it a policy of the city government to extend cash benefits to qualified senior citizens in the form of honorarium in the amount of P40 per hour commensurate to services rendered by senior citizens as determined by the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) and amending for the purpose Section 1 of Ordinance No. 7, series of 2011.
City legislators stated that it shall be a policy of the city government to extend cash benefits to qualified senior citizens in the form of honorarium amounting to P40 per hour commensurate to the services that they have rendered as determined by the OSCA.
The council added that funding for the said purpose shall be included in the annual budget of the City Social Welfare and Development Office to sustain the implementation of the grant of the honorarium to the qualified senior citizens who will be rendering services to the city in the future.
Ordinance No. 53, series of 1995 which was approved on July 19, 1995 extended cash benefits amounting to P20 per hour as honorarium to qualified senior citizens commensurate to their services rendered as determined by the OSCA and provided funds for the said purpose pursuant to the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) 7432 that granted special privileges to senior citizens extending services to the city.
On February 14, 2011, the local legislative body approved Ordinance No. 7, series of 2011 that amended the aforesaid measure increasing the honorarium granted to senior citizens from P20 to P30 per hour for the services that they have rendered with the different offices of the local government pursuant to the guidelines that had been previously crafted for the said purpose.
The council stipulated that to recognize the valuable contributions of the senior citizens to community development, there is a need to increase the cash benefits being granted by the local government to qualified senior citizens for the same to be commensurate to the services and labor being extended by the elderly to keep up with the demands of the present times.
According to the council, there are many senior citizens who continue to extend their expertise to the different offices of the city government to date but the compensation being provided by the city for such valuable services seem not to be commensurate to the present times, thus, the need for the city legislative body to look into ways on which to appropriately compensate the senior citizens rendering quality services to their prospective clients.
The council asserted that the contributions of the qualified senior citizens in continuously molding the present and future generations of city residents into becoming responsible citizens of the community is vital in instilling to the youth the importance of sincerity, honesty, discipline, patience and perseverance in achieving their goals and aspirations, especially that the onset of the information and communication technology (ICT) age has made the global village highly competitive.
The OSCA, under the CSWDO, serves as the coordination office for senior citizens wanting to extend the needed services to their target clients not only from the city government offices but also the city’s 128 barangays. By Dexter A. See