LGUs urged: Make seniors productive, not dependent

Local government units (LGUs) in the country should create more programs to make their senior citizens more productive rather than being dependent on aid alone, delegates to a social science conference said over the weekend.

Amaryllis Tiglao-Torres, executive director of the Philippine Social Science Council, said LGUs are more directly involved than the national government in addressing concerns of their senior citizens like health care.

“It’s easier for LGUs to solve the concerns of senior citizens than the national government. Problem is if the LGU is poor, they cannot give anything to their senior citizens,” she said.

Yesterday’s 20th Biennial General Conference of the Association of Asian Social Science Research Councils (AASSREC) at Cebu Parklane Hotel carried the theme “Rapidly Ageing Societies: Opportunities and Challenges for the State and Family.”

Torres said LGU programs for senior citizens should be collaborated with stakeholders like civil society, church and academe through sharing their own field of expertise and skills in order “to influence the law.”

“Lawmakers should study the existing laws in order to improve and make better laws (for the betterment of senior citizens’ welfare),” she told the delegates.

Torres said the problems faced by senior citizens can be solved more easily in the local government level.

For now, she said the country’s LGUs like Cebu City focus on allocating cash aid to seniors.

“Malaking tulong na ibinigay buwan-buwan kasi araw-araw may pangangailangan ang mga matatanda (It’s more beneficial to give monthly because the seniors have daily needs),” she said.

Torres said it will eventually boil down to the capability of LGUs to sustain cash outlay for the seniors.

She said the cities of Makati and Quezon offer hospital services in lieu of cash aid.

“In Makati, the senior citizens can avail of free hospital care, the same in Quezon City,” she said.

Torres urged candidates to find ways on how to make the elderly become “productive citizens.”

“Think outside the box. Don’t think of them as retired. Look into how citizens remain productive even in their old age. They can still offer more, not all of them are senile. They still have abilities,” she said.

Torres also said LGUs should also adopt a health care system geared towards caring for the elderly.

“The irony is that as one gets older and needs more medicines, these tend to be more expensive even with the generics and seniors citizens law,” she said.

Other countries were aming to adopt a Universal Health Care to include their senior citizens, Torres said. /Tweeny M. Malinao, Correspondent