Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte plans to conduct a comprehensive census and profiling of thousands of senior citizens for an equal distribution of their benefits and city services.
An accurate and updated database of senior citizen-residents would enable the city government would help identify the needs of the elders, Belmonte said.
“We have no precise record on the number of qualified senior citizens. Until we have accounted them all, and know what their principal needs are, we cannot effectively come up with programs that benefit each one of them,” she added.
Based on the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs statistics, 375,000 senior citizens live in Quezon City, but the vice mayor believes many more have not been documented properly.
Once OsCA’s database is updated regularly, the next step, Belmonte said, is to profile the registered seniors by socio-economic status, health concerns, and important personal and family backgrounds.
By knowing such valuable information, the city government will be able to prioritize programs and projects that have the most impact on the senior citizen sector.
“We have to know, for example, who among them are suffering from chronic illnesses that need maintenance medicines or bedridden, indigent, or how many of them need financial assistance,” she said. “They have different needs.”
The city government has allotted P190 million for senior citizens from its P19-billion budget.
“We have the funds, I’m telling you,” she noted.