MANILA, Philippines – Indigent senior citizens aged 80 and above will receive a monthly pension of P500 starting next year as part of the Expanded Senior Citizens Act, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said yesterday.
Soliman said the funds for the social pension of some 4.3 million poor senior citizens were included in the agency’s proposed 2011 budget amounting to P34.2 billion.
She earlier said that the government is likely to spend roughly P7 billion annually for the social pensions of the indigent elderly.
Republic Act 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act, signed by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last Feb. 16, exempts senior citizens from the value added tax (VAT).
The law grants a 20-percent discount for senior citizens on purchases of food and medicine, as well as other services in restaurants and movie houses.
Senior citizens have only been able to enjoy eight percent of the supposed 20-percent discount because of the 12-percent VAT.
Soliman said they are studying the possibility of implementing the five-percent discount on electric and water bills of selected elderly next month instead of December.
Under the law, senior citizens will also get a five-percent discount on electric and water consumption, provided that the meters for these utilities are registered under their names and usage is below 100 kilowatt-hours for electricity and 30 cubic meters for water. –Helen Flores (The Philippine Star)
March –
IT’S WOMEN’S MONTH!
“Respect and support women
every day of the year/s!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the recommendations of the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry
against serious violations of protocols of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association.
Accept the National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar. Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands
#Report Corruption #SearchPosts #TakePicturesVideos
Monthly Observances:
Women’s Role in History Month
Weekly Observances:
Week 1: Environmental Week;
Women’s Week
Week 3: Philippine Industry and “
Made-in-the-Philippines Products Week
Last Week: Protection and Gender-Fair Treatment
of the Girl Child Week
Daily Observances:
March 8: Women’s Rights and
International Peace Day;
National Women’s Day
March 4: Employee Appreciation Day
March 15: World Consumer Rights Day
March 18: Global Recycling Day
March 21: International Day for the Elimination
of Racial Discrimination
March 23: International Day for the Right to the Truth
Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations
and for the Dignity of Victims
March 25: International Day of Remembrance of the
Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
March 27: Earth Hour
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