City Saves P5.2M from Seniors Allowance

The Cebu City Government has saved over P5.2 million when the 2,616 senior citizens did not collect their P2,000 financial assistance following the lapse of the 15-day reglementary period.

The records of the Cebu City Treasurer’s Office showed that 1,391 senior citizens from the barangays in the north district and 1,225 from the south district barangays failed to claim their benefits.

Rolando Llaguno, head of the Office of Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) in Cebu City said the distribution of the P2,000 cash assistance was held last August 16 in the City’s barangays. Those who failed to claim their benefits in the barangays were still allowed to collect it until September 9.

The city government had already released P6,000 to each of the senior citizens since last January. The remaining P6,000 will be also released to them within the year.

Llaguno said that based on the guidelines, the unclaimed cash is forfeited after 15 working days from the distribution schedule and it will be reverted to the general fund.

While a few of those senior citizens who failed to collect their benefits had died already, but speculations is that they were no longer living in Cebu City.

“Kay dos mil ra man ang gipanghatag alkanse man sila nga moanhi nga magplete og dako unya gamay ray makuha mao nga wala na lang nila kobraha ang cash assistance,” an OSCA employee said.

The city had allocated P720 million for the senior citizens cash assistance this year at P12,000 to each of the 60,000 elderly persons that are registered with the OSCA.