Laws & Jurisprudence
SENIOR CITIZENS ACT
5:52 PM
Today, my father-in-law celebrates his 60th birthday. His friends calls him a dual citizen; a Filipino citizen and Senior citizen. Now let us check some of the rights and privileges of a Senior Citizen under our laws.
SENIOR CITIZEN or elderly refers
to any resident citizen of the Philippines at least sixty (60) years old.
Article XIII, Section
11 of the Constitution provides that the Sate shall adopt an integrated and
comprehensive approach to health development which shall endeavor to make
essential goods, health and other social services available to all the people
at affordable cost. There shall be priority for the needs of the
underprivileged, sick, elderly, disabled, women and children. Article XV,
Section 4 of the Constitution Further declares that it is the duty of the
family to take care of its elderly members while the State may design programs
of social security for them.
a.
To
recognize the rights of senior citizens to take their proper place in society
and make it a concern of the family, community, and government;
b.
To
give full support to the improvement of the total well-being of the elderly and
their full participation in society, considering that senior citizens are
integral part of Philippine society;
c.
To
motivate and encourage the senior citizens to contribute to nation building;
d. To
encourage their families and the communities they live with to reaffirm the
valued Filipino tradition of caring for the senior citizens;
e. To
provide a comprehensive health care and rehabilitation system for disabled
senior citizens to foster their capacity to attain a more meaningful and
productive ageing; and
f. To
recognize the important role of the private sector in the improvement of the
welfare of senior citizens and to actively seek their partnership.
Senior citizens are
entitled to the following:
a) Discount privileges,
b) Free services,
c) Exemptions,
d) Incentives,
e) Government financial
assistance, and
f) Priority in express
lanes.
The 20% senior citizens discount and
VAT-exemption shall apply only to the following purchases of goods and
services, when applicable:
a) The purchase of
medicines, including the purchase of influenza and pneumococcal vaccines, and
such other essential medical supplies, accessories and equipment;
b) The professional fees
of attending physician/s in all private hospitals, medical facilities,
outpatient clinics and home health care services;
c) The professional fees
of licensed professional health workers providing home health care services as
endorsed by private hospitals or employed through home health care employment
agencies;
d) Medical and dental
services, diagnostic and laboratory fees in all private hospitals, medical
facilities, outpatient clinics, and home health care services, in accordance
with the rules and regulations to be issued by the' DOH, in coordination with
the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth);
e) Actual fare for land
transportation travel in public utility buses (PUBs), public utility jeepneys
(PUJs), taxis, Asian utility vehicles (AUVs), shuttle services and public
railways, including Light Rail Transit (LRT), Mass Rail Transit (MRT) , and
Philippine National Railways (PNR);
f) Actual transportation
fare for domestic air transport services and sea shipping vessels and the like,
based on the actual fare and advanced booking;
g) The utilization of
services in hotels and similar lodging establishments, restaurants and
recreation centers;
h) Admission fees charged
by theaters, cinema houses and concert halls, circuses, carnivals, and other
similar places of culture, leisure and amusement; and
i) Funeral and burial
services for the death of senior citizens;
Funeral and burial services subject to the 20% discount which includes the
purchase of the casket or urn, embalming, cremation costs, pick-up of the body
from the morgue, transport for burial at his/her hometown, but excluding
obituary publication and the cost of the memorial lot.
The special 5% discount privilege applies only to prime commodities and
basic necessities as listed under the Price Act or Republic Act No. 7581.
a) BASIC NECESSITIES
such as rice, corn, bread, fresh, dried and canned fish and other marine
products, fresh pork, beef and poultry, meat, fresh eggs, fresh and processed
milk, fresh vegetables, root crops, coffee, sugar, cooking oil, salt, laundry
soap, detergents;
b) PRIME COMMODITIES
like fresh fruits, flour, dried, processed and canned pork, beef and poultry, meat,
dairy products not falling under basic necessities; noodles, onions, garlic; and
c) All drugs not
classified as essential drugs by the DOH and other commodities that may be
classified by the DTI and the DA according to Republic Act No. 7581 or The Price
Act
Senior citizens can
avail of the 20% discount on food purchases whether take-out/take-home, drive-thru or
by delivery as long as the
food purchase is for the personal
consumption of the senior
citizen and he/she is able to show an OSCA-issued ID, the 20% discount must be
granted.
They are entitled to
the following free medical
benefits:
a) Medical and dental
services, diagnostic and laboratory tests requested by the physician such
as but not limited to X-rays, computerized tomography scans, and blood tests
availed of by senior citizens, including professional fees of attending doctors
in all government hospitals, medical facilities, outpatient clinics, and home
health care services,
b) Free pneumoccocal and
influenza vaccine for indigent senior citizens.
Moreover, they are
also entitled to utility
discounts:
a) 50% discount on
electric, water and telephone consumption on senior citizens centers and
residential/group homes as a form of “institutional support”; and
b) 5% discount on
electric consumption not exceeding 100 kwhrs and water consumption not
exceeding 30 cubic meters for households with senior citizens residing therein
and under whose name the separate meters are registered.
Other Government financial assistance are
also available to them which includes:
a) Monthly Social
Pension of P500 to be given to indigent senior citizens; and
b) Death Benefit
Assistance of P2,000 to be given to the nearest surviving relative who cared
for the deceased senior citizen until his/her death.
A senior citizen, or a duly
authorized representative, must present an ORIGINAL AND VALID senior citizens
identification card issued by the Office of Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) in
the city or municipality where he/she resides, with the necessary purchase
booklet for medicines, or the purchase booklet for basic necessities/prime
commodities, when applicable.
To apply for a senior
citizen’s card, the process is very
simple, just apply at the Office Of The Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) in the city or municipality where a senior
citizen resides. He/She will be required to accomplish an application form,
submit a proof of eligibility and a recent 1″ x 1″ ID photograph.
A senior citizen can
send a representative to purchase goods on his/her behalf
subject to the following requirements:
a)
An
authorization letter signed by the senior citizen whom he/she represents;
b)
OSCA
ID and OSCA-issued purchase booklet of the senior citizen; and
c)
A
valid government-issued ID card of the representative
Source:
Republic
Act No. 9994/ www.dswd.gov.ph/ www.dti.gov.ph/ www.lawphil.net
DISCLAIMER: The author is not lawyer nor an authority on this topic. It is a product of humble research and study of law. The information provided is not a legal advice and it should not be used as a substitute for a competent legal advice from a licensed lawyer.
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