SIX legitimate residents of the City of Manila who reached their 100th birthdays were recently honored and gifted with P100,000 cash by Mayor Joseph Estrada at the San Andres Sports Complex.
The recipients are Leonila dela Fuente Acacio and Asuncion Angque Angeles, both from District 4; Leandra De Paz Valles, from District 5; and Celedonia Eugenio, Bonifacio Santos and Araceli Garcia Manuel, from District 6.
Eight more centenarians are slated to receive their cash gifts in the coming weeks from Estrada, who said these are but a token from the city for their contributions to society during the prime of their lives.
“You have sacrificed much so that the present generation now enjoys the fruits of your labors,” Estrada explained.
“Because of your valuable contributions to society in your youth and vigor, we greet you on your 100th birthdays, and hope you put the cash gifts from the city government to good use,” the mayor added.
Estrada also distributed 18 wheelchairs and announced other assistance packages provided by the city hall to all elderly such as free maintenance medicines and medical services and other laboratory tests in all city owned and operated hospitals and health care facilities.
He said that senior citizens can avail themselves of free maintenance for hypertension, diabetes, arthritis, high cholesterol, cough, colds, influenza and other sicknesses.
Senior citizens could get prescription for their disease after consultation and diagnose from doctors and medical personnel in the 59 community health centers locally.
The free medicines are Losartan, Amlodipine and Metoprolol for hypertension; Simvastatin and Gliclazide for high cholesterol) and Metformin for diabetes.
A sick and poor elderly could receive P3,000 worth of maintenance medicines for one month, and other services like free regular physical examination, cardiac stress test, endoscopy, among others.
According to Dr. Benjamin Yson, Manila Health Department head, the city government has allotted P70 million for free maintenance medicines for the city’s senior citizens.
Hermie Salonga, assistant head of the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs, said that as of December 2017, 145,830 residents aged 60 years and above have been registered with his office.
Other perks include P500 birthday cash; an annual P6,000 social pension from the Department of Social Welfare and Development-National Capital Region in coordination with the city government.
OSCA claimed that about 56 centenarians had already received their P100,000 cash gift from city hall.
Also, senior citizens can avail of free movies from all cinema houses in the city every Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The city government also provides P5,000 in burial assistance to its residents, Estrada reminded the 600 seniors who attended the affair.
The mayor reminded that all senior citizens must registered themselves with OSCA to receive the free assistance packages.
“Please check if you are a registered senior citizen of Manila before applying for these benefits,” said Estrada.