Manila waives parking fees for senior citizens

SENIOR citizens will no longer have to pay parking fees in the city of Manila, Mayor Joseph Estrada said on Wednesday.

“The council and I have agreed that the elderly, who are 60 years old and above, be exempted from parking charges and (the) color coding scheme,” Estrada in a statement.

The directive, he added, is covered by a city ordinance.

“We must reward our elderly and this ordinance shall further give them enjoyment in their twilight years,” he added.

Manila’s senior citizens are entitled to free medical services and laboratory tests in city-run hospitals and health care facilities. They are also given free maintenance medicines for hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, high cholesterol, cough and colds.

Dr. Benjamin Yson, chief of the Manila Health Department, said this year, the city appropriated P70 million for free maintenance medicines such as Losartan, Amlodipine and Metoprolol, Simvastatin and Gliclazide for high cholesterol; Metformin for diabetes.

A sick and indigent elderly could get P3,000 worth of medicines for one month, as well as free regular physical examination, cardiac stress test, endoscopy and other laboratory tests.

- nior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) head, said that as of December 2017, there are about 145,830 registered senior citizens in the city and 20 percent of them or 29,166 need medication for their sicknesses.

citizens are a birthday cash gift of P500; an annual P6,000 social pension and free movies.

A P100,000 cash gift is awarded to citizens who reached the age of 100 years and above.