Giving elderly Filipinos what is due them

After a long delay, the two houses of Congress have finally approved a consolidated version of the Expanded Senior Citizens Act that would exempt elderly Filipinos from the 12-percent expanded-value added tax (EVAT) allowing them to enjoy the full 20-percent discount on goods and services.

Despite some doubts to the contrary, I am confident that President Gloria Arroyo will sign the measure because this will be one of her legacies as she leaves office in June this year.

The EVAT, which then-Senator Ralph Recto has championed, has, in effect, reduced to eight percent the 20-percent discount given to senior citizens. Many believed that because of EVAT, Recto lost in the 2007 elections. Now, Recto wants to get back his Senate seat.

Originally, the Senate, through Sen. Edgardo Angara, sought a 30-percent discount for senior citizens, or an increase of 10 percent in the present discount, to offset the loss of 12 percent due to EVAT.

The measure presented by Angara, the author of the original Senior Citizens Act (R.A. 7342), was supported by the Department of Finance obviously because this would not affect the government’s collection of EVAT.

However, several establishments bucked the proposal since this would make a dent on their profits. They said the measure was also counterproductive since the additional tax could just be passed on to consumers.

Later, the Senate jettisoned the Angara bill and crafted a measure similar to House Bill 6390 that seeks to retain the 20-percent discount but would exempt senior citizens from EVAT. The full discount would apply to medical services, including medicines, in all private medical facilities; admission fees in theaters, cinema houses, concert halls and other similar leisure places; and transport fares.

Neglected sector

Through the Senior Citizens Act of 2003, the government, recognizing the role of elderly Filipinos in society, assures them of assistance, however meager, in their daily needs, especially for their maintenance medicines.

A special report published by The Manila Times last year described the majority of the six million Filipinos aged 60 and above as “poor, sick, undernourished, and undermedicated and among the unhappiest and poorest citizens in the country.”

This is deplorable, the special report said, because the Philippines is a Christian country and one of the distinct traits which remain entrenched in Filipino families is the high regard for older persons.

However, some business establishments believe that senior citizens are bad for marketing and profits. According to the special report, in 2000, they constituted only 4 percent of the total population. Today, given the improved longevity, they must be around five percent.

Even with their increase in number, the senior citizens still do not represent a sizeable demographic sector that could attract the attention of big businesses whose focus is on the young and the middle-aged.

Strict compliance

As soon as the new law takes effect, concerned government agencies must see to it that it is strictly implemented. Even now, under the old law, only big drugstores, like Mercury and Watsons, are giving discounts to senior citizens. All the others, especially those in the provinces, refused to honor the senior citizen ID.

But I have not heard of any drugstore penalized for refusing to honor the 20-percent discount for senior citizens.

Some establishments also make it difficult for senior citizens to claim for discounts, even subjecting some of them to humiliation and embarrassment.

For example, there was one time when my wife and I, both holders of senior citizen ID cards, invited a couple for lunch in one of the restaurants in Manila. When the bill came and I presented my senior citizen ID, the manager said that since we were four and

I was the only one with ID, the amount would be divided into four and my 20-percent discount would apply only to one-fourth of the amount.

When I asked if I could also use my wife’s senior citizen ID, the manager said that only one ID could be honored in one occasion. I would have argued with the manager but since our guest pulled out his wallet, I just paid the whole amount to avoid being embarrassed.

In another instance when I was hospitalized after a severe asthma attack, the physician’s fee for my pulmonologist was included in my total bill. When I asked the billing clerk whether I could deduct the 20-percent discount from my doctor’s bill, he said that the amount was already net of m y 20-percent discount. There was no way of checking whether what he said was true and since I did not want to stay a day longer in the hospital, I was forced to pay the whole amount.

So, what we need now is for the government to closely monitor the implementation of the new law so that senior citizens like me can really benefit from it. –ALITO L. MALINAO, Manila Times

opinion@manilatimes.net