Seniors laud Mayor Binay for stopping ‘palakasan’ in cash gift distribution

Senior citizens representing 23 Barangay Councils of Senior Citizens in Makati City (BCSC) on Tuesday lauded Mayor Abigail Binay for ending the “palakasan” system in the city’s cash gift distribution.

To address the problem, Binay imposed sterner guidelines in the release of the bi-annual cash gifts for BLU Card holders.

The chairs and other officials of barangay-based elderly groups, in a dialogue held at City Hall, unanimously agreed that the previous system was prone to abuse and misuse. The new guidelines, they said, were “working just fine.”

The barangay councils represented at the dialog include East Rembo, Poblacion, Dasmariñas Village, Comembo, Rizal, Pitogo, Guadalupe Viejo, Guadalupe Nuevo, South Cembo, Pio del Pilar, Sta. Cruz, Pinagkaisahan, Pembo, Bel-Air, San Lorenzo, Olympia, Magallanes, Palanan, San Isidro, Southside, Northside, Tejeros, and Kasilawan.

Currently, senior citizens of Makati under the BLU Card program are entitled to cash gifts ranging from 13,000 to 15,000 a year, based on age brackets. “Since 2012, 51 centenarians have been awarded with 1100,000 cash gifts. Of these, 26 were recognized during the current administration.”

The mayor said that to tighten the rules, conduct of home visits was added “in the spirit of fairness.” “We want to get rid of the ‘palakasan system’,” she said.

Binay said the current implementing guidelines were thoroughly studied prior to their approval, and recalled how the elderly leaders were given a stepby-step guide on the process of cash incentive distribution.

“Our objective was to protect both the distributor and the receiver,” she said.

Binay said her administration has, in fact, been very accommodating of the needs and requests of the elderly.

In June 2017, she said the Makati Health Development Council approved the extension of the validity period of the Yellow Card upon her initiative to spare beneficiaries of the burden of having to renew annually.

Under the new policy, lifetime membership is granted to senior citizens below 80 years old who can present updated tax declarations, and to those 80 and above who have been Yellow Card holders for the past six years. For those not qualified in the said criteria, they may apply for threeyear validity which requires them to be registered voters of Makati and actual residents.

She added that the city government granted the request of Blu Card members for an option to receive a check, instead of the usual cash for the said incentive. Even though the processing of checks was tedious and required more paperwork, the city government accommodated the said request.