Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda (PPAB)

Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda expressed his gratitude to the Department of Health (DOH) for heeding the call to remove senior citizens' requirement to present a purchase booklet in order to avail a 20 percent discount on medicines.

Salceda, chairperson of the House Committee on Ways and Means, recalled that his panel together with the Committees on Senior Citizens and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) requested this from the DOH in the first quarter of this year.

“Byebye booklet. I thank the DOH for making permanent the change we requested in the House’s joint committee hearings on senior citizens, PWD, and solo parents’ benefits,” the lawmaker said.

“It’s a long overdue change. Salamat (Thank you) PBBM (President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.) and salamat (thank you), [DOH] Secretary Ted Herbosa,” he added.

Salceda noted that during previous hearings, it was brought up that the booklet requirement often causes senior citizens to get denied essential medicines.

Given their age, he said, elderly Filipinos often forget these booklets or, at worst, even lose them.

Under DOH’s Administrative Order (AO) No. 2024-0017, the agency recognized that requiring senior citizens to present a booklet during every transaction only results in “undue burden and difficulties”.

United Senior Citizens Party-list Rep. Milagros Aquino-Magsaysay, for her part, said taking this requirement out makes the lives of senior citizens more convenient.

“Taking into account the mobility and tendency of our senior citizens to bring their purchase booklets for medicines, the deletion of the requirement not only gives premium to elderly convenience, it is only ecologically sound and friendly,” said Magsaysay.

The congresswoman noted that she has consistently advocated for the removal of the purchase booklet rule since the 17th Congress.

“We at the United Senior Citizens Party-list are thankful to the DOH. This is laudable and indeed an early Christmas gift to over 12 million older persons nationwide,” she added.

Following the DOH’s order, Magsaysay called on the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), among others, to further abolish the policy of presenting a purchase booklet to avail discounts on basic necessities and prime commodities.