The Makati City government announced on Tuesday it has started the early distribution of mid-year cash gift for senior citizens via door-to-door delivery with food packs.
Around 78,262 senior citizens under the city’s Blu Card program will be receiving the mid-year cash gift along with food packs to be delivered directly to their homes.
Mayor Abigail Binay said the city government has decided to give the cash gifts ahead of the usual schedule in June to help reassure the elderly of its steadfast support.
“We want to ease the anxiety of our senior citizens and assure them that we will continue to take care of them despite the crisis,” Binay said.
“By advancing this benefit, we aim to give them the means to help out with household expenditures, especially for those whose breadwinners are daily wage earners,” she added.
The city chief executive said city government personnel will be delivering the cash gift and food packs right at the doorsteps of the beneficiaries so they need not go out.
“We ask our Blu Card members to stay home so they will surely be
around to receive their allowance and food packs,” she said.
The mayor said senior citizens aged 60 to 69 years old will get P1,500 each, 70 to 79 years old, P2,000, and 80 to 89, P2,500.
She said that the city made use of its databank of vulnerable sectors to easily pinpoint those that should be prioritized in the provision of emergency assistance during critical situations such as the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Binay said using the sectoral approach has enabled the city to implement a strategic response to the needs of its constituents, while optimizing the city’s resources.
Similar efforts of the city aimed to protect and minimize the risk of exposure of senior citizens and other vulnerable residents to COVID-19 include door-to-door delivery of free maintenance medicines and other prescriptions under the Yellow Card.
Other sectors that have received financial aid and food packs from the city include over 13,000 registered PWD residents of Makati, 2,000 solo parents and over 6,800 tricycle and jeepney drivers.
The city has also distributed over 80,000 food packs to public school students from kinder to senior high school to address their nutritional needs during the quarantine.
Under the Blu Card program, senior citizens aged 60 to 69 will receive P3,000 a year, half given in June and the rest in December. Those 70 to 79 years old receive P4,000 while those aged 80 to 89 get P5,000 annually, also in two equal installments.
Last year, upon the recommendation of Mayor Binay, the City Council passed City Ordinance No. 2019-A-023 granting P10,000 in cash gift to Blu cardholders between 90-99 years old, and from age 101 years for as long as they live. Since 2012, the city has also granted a P100,000 centenarian incentive for qualified residents who reach 100 years of age.
