Senior citizens in north district get their aid; South district today

Remedios Cabrera, 60, received P4,000 cash as her share of  senior’s citizen aid from the Cebu City government for the first time yesterday.

Instead of buying food or medicine with it, the barangay  Busay elder used her money to pay off part of a P5,000 loan used as  capital in her bottled water business in the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño.

Cabrera was one of  25,573 senior citizens in the north district who received the first installment  of the annual P10,000 aid.

Today is the turn of  30,759 other beneficiaries from the south district.

The cash was distributed in gyms of  public elementary schools and was more orderly than in past  exercises.

The elderly were more comfortable sitting in well ventilated covered courts or classrooms.

Priority numbers were given and their names were checked from lists.

But not everyone was happy.

There was some confusion in barangay  Kamputhaw after village officials gave out priority numbers and opened their  gyms.

City Hall personnel then transferred the venue to the Kamputhaw Elementary School.

Pardo barangay captain Fermin Dasmarinas complained  about the change in venue when he went to the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) at City Hall.

He blamed Pardo barangay councilor and Team Rama candidate for City Councilor Althea Lim for the transfer of venue.

“Politics is involved here.   The senior citizens should have been spared,” he said in Cebuano

In a press conference, Mayor Michael Rama said he did not authorize Lim to  transfer the  venue of the distribution center.

He said that using public schools  was more comfortable for the elederly who could sit down and benefit from electric fans to cool off in the summer heat. /Doris C. Bongcac, Chief of Reporters