House to form TWG to study senior grocery discount hike

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives will convene a technical working group (TWG) to study the possibility of increasing the P65 maximum discount on senior citizens’ weekly grocery purchases, Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said on Tuesday.

The move comes after United Senior Citizen party-list Representative Milagros Aquino-Magsaysay suggested increasing the maximum discountable weekly purchase from P1,300 to P5,000.

READ: House to probe firms denying discounts to seniors, PWDs 

Currently, a special discount of 5 percent on groceries bought by senior citizens, but it has a cap of up to P1,300 per week — which means that if purchases exceed P1,300, the discount will stay at 5 percent of P1,300, which is P65.

“Increasing the value of the grocery budget for seniors or PWDs [persons with disabilities] to, say, P5,000 a week, would mean the mandated 5 percent discount would equate to P250,” Magsaysay said on Tuesday.

Romualdez said there was a plan for the House to convene a technical working group this week to review the Senior Citizen’s Act as the P65 per week maximum discount might no longer be appropriate in the current economic climate.

“Seniors and PWDs are currently getting a far too modest discount of P65 on their weekly groceries. We need to increase this,” Romualdez said.

“This amount is no longer appropriate in the current economic climate, given the high cost of living,” added Speaker Romualdez.

Concerns about the small discounts given to seniors were brought up during the House committee on ways and means hearing, which is probing businesses’ and establishments’ compliance with the Expanded Senior Citizens Act (Republic Act No. 9994).

Zamboanga Sibugay 1st District Rep. Wilter Palma relayed to the committee that while he and his wife were buying groceries in a mall near Fairview, Quezon City last Saturday, he was surprised to learn that despite the huge cost of their purchases, the discount was capped at P65.

“Last Saturday, my wife went to one of the grocery stores here [in] Fairview, so we got a lot of stuff for our personal consumption, and the total bill was something like P16,000… When I was about to pay, I asked the cashier, how much was the discount. She said it’s P65, regardless of the amount, it’s only P65 per week,” Palma explained.

“So I told her, ‘Miss, under the law, there should be a discount.’ But [she said] that’s the management instruction. So I want to know what is the stand of [SM] — P65 in spite of a huge payment for the basic commodities — food, chicken, meat, rice, and so on and so forth. And they would look for a booklet. That’s my personal experience last Saturday,” he added.

It was then revealed that according to the Joint DTI-DA Administrative Order No. 10-02 series of 2010, seniors could enjoy a special discount of 5 percent for their groceries, provided that the “total amount of said purchase shall not exceed the amount of P1,300 per calendar week.”

Meanwhile, Romualdez said that the discounts should not only be limited to groceries but also extended to food supplements and vitamins — which, under the current setup, are not included in special discounts.

“Many of our seniors and PWDs need to regularly purchase supplements or vitamins to maintain their health and strengthen their resistance to diseases, so it’s only fitting to include these in the discounted items as well,” Romualdez added.

For the past few weeks, the Committee on Ways and Means and the Committee on Senior Citizens have been getting complaints about the implementation of discounts for senior citizens and persons with disabilities (PWDs), which stemmed from a coffee shop’s controversial take on the law.

READ: Lawmakers call out coffee chain over ‘wrong’ senior, PWD discount policy 

Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda, chair of the Committee on Ways and Means, said Speaker Romualdez himself instructed his panel to probe the issue.