SENIOR CITIZENS GET FINAL TRANCHE

Some 69,512 senior citizens claim their cash aid from Cebu City

At 92, Juliana Lim still managed to personally claim her financial assistance from the Cebu City Government, Saturday, Dec. 1 at the Barangay Guadalupe gym.

Lim said that for years, she has been using her financial assistance to buy her maintenance medicine after suffering from glaucoma.

A small bottle of the medicine, costing around P1,200, would only last for three weeks.

But despite only receiving P2,000, Lim said she feels blessed to receive something from the City Government than get nothing at all.

“Where would you find someone who will just give you money with nothing in return? I’m very happy and thankful that I get to receive this financial assistance,” she said.

Lim said that despite walking very slow, she wants to personally claim her financial assistance at the gymnasium of Barangay Guadalupe.

Lim was just among the close to 5,000 senior citizens of Barangay Guadalupe who were able to claim their financial assistance last Saturday, Dec. 1.

Around 69,512 qualified senior citizens also received the cash gift during the simultaneous distribution that the City Government did in the 80 barangays.

Each elderly gets P2,000, which represents the 10th and last tranche of their P12,000 cash aid for this year.

The amount will cover the months of November and December of this year.

From around 60,000 elderly two years ago, the City has close to 70,000 qualified senior citizens who received financial assistance this year.

Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs Head Lourdes Limpangog earlier explained that the number of qualified seniors increased this year since most of those who registered for the aid previously were already qualified to receive this year.

But opposition Councilor Joel Garganera hopes the distribution of cash aid is not being used as a political tool by the administration.

Garganera said the administration has to be reminded that the money did not come from them but from the City Government’s coffers.

But Limpangog, in an earlier interview, said there was nothing wrong with last Saturday’s distribution since they intended to give the last tranche of the financial assistance in time for December so the elderly would have something for Christmas.

Apart from that, she said the reason her office distributed the cash aid during December was they needed to close their books to fasttrack liquidations, as required by the Commission on Audit.

In the distribution of financial assistance in Barangay Guadalupe, Department of Public Services officer-in-charge John Paul Gelasque said they did not encounter major problems.

Gelasque said they just addressed the concerns of those seniors who could’t personally claim their financial aid.