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Manila Bulletin devider Opinion devider Caring for the elderly

Caring for the elderly

Published Jun 28, 2023 04:05 pm

TOL VIEWS

Just recently, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released ₱42.93 billion for the health insurance premiums of Filipino senior citizens for the year 2023. This allocation, drawn from Sin Tax revenues, is expected to ensure more than 8.5 million senior citizens enlisted in the national health insurance program of PhilHealth that their government is looking after their health and well-being. As the elderly members of our society approach their twilight years, the best offering we can make is to allow them to gracefully age, constantly re-assuring them that they are important, respected, needed and loved. Indeed, our elderly deserve the best quality of life as they reach their book’s ending chapters. The most productive years of their lives they offered and shared selflessly with family, friends, community and country, so that younger generations after them may live and thrive in peace, progress and prosperity. The kind and quality of life we now enjoy we owe to those who spent their talent and energy in strengthening communities and transforming the country. What better way to recognize and reward these noble deeds than to affirm our elderly’s valuable contribution to society and allow them to live with honor and dignity. Our constitution, foremost, guarantees the right of the elderlies to care and protection in Article XV Section 4: “It is the duty of the family to take care of its older person members, while the State may design programs for social security for them.” Many of our laws actually premised on advancing the interests and welfare of el-derlies, most popular of these perhaps is the Senior Citizens Act of 1991 or RA 7432 which provided discounts for senior citizens in a wide array of goods and services and RA 9994 particularly Section 6 which established the Office of Senior Citizens (OSCA) in all cities and municipalities in the country. In addition to these, there are pending bills, including the one I filed at the Senate, that aim to amend Revised Penal Code for the imposition of harsher punishment for those who will abuse senior citizens. The wisdom and experience of the elderly, more than being treasures, are likewise their gifts to a generation which constantly needs guidance and inspiration. No matter how advance science and technology become, the wisdom and lessons of the elderly shall remain a sourcebook from which we may better understand and appreciate the complexities of human life.

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Senator Francis N. Tolentino
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