It all started when then Pasay mayor, now Rep. Tony Calixto, allocated P320 million last year for the P500 monthly financial aid for the city’s public school students — 30,000 in elementary, 30,000 in high school and 5,000 in college.
For next year, Pasay Mayor Emi Calixto-Rubiano has doubled the amount to P660 million so all the public school students in the city will receive an additional P500 monthly. The money will be given to their parents for safekeeping and to ensure that it will be spent wisely. Mayor Rubiano is also working on making all 1,050 public classrooms in the city fully air-conditioned.
Parañaque Mayor Edwin Olivarez has also allotted P300 million worth of financial assistance to 48,000 “deserving” high school students in his city. Qualified Grade 7 to 12 students get a P500 monthly allowance on the condition that they attend their classes 80 percent of the time.
By January, Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso will be giving a P1,000 monthly allowance to all 17,841 students of the city government-operated Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila and Unibersidad de Manila. Funding for this has been set at P136.6 million.
All 10,975 Grade 12 public school students will also receive a P500 monthly allowance with a total funding of P29.66 million.
Their efforts are worthy of emulation by other local government units.
In the past years, Makati and Taguig were the best cities for senior citizens.
Makati Mayor Abigail Binay pampers her 84,111 senior citizens, providing them with free medical services and hospitalization, free medicine and special groceries every December.
Cash gifts ranging from P3,000 to P5,000 are given to Blu Card senior members every June and December. This year, a total budget of P533 million was allocated for the city’s elderly residents.
In Taguig, former mayor now Rep. Lani Cayetano provides quarterly social pensions of P1,500 or a total of P6,000 yearly to 30,000 senior citizens who are also entitled to birthday gifts ranging from P3,000 to P5,000. She has also built a five-story wellness hub for seniors on Ipil-ipil Street in North Signal Village which boasts a theater, spa, therapy pool and a ballroom with elevators.
But Isko is stepping up the city government’s efforts for Manila’s 182,276 seniors. In the city’s newly approved 2020 budget, P1.2 billion is allocated for all seniors.
In January, they will receive P500 per month or P6,000 a year plus a birthday gift of P800.
Aside from this, indigent and sickly seniors will get P3,000 worth of maintenance medicine monthly on top of a free regular physical examination. In August, the city government distributed checks of P100,000 each to five centenarians, the same benefits enjoyed by their peers in Quezon City and Makati.
I love the efforts of Metro Manila’s young chief executives to further help the elderly. They should really allocate bigger funds for social amelioration rather than “commission-based” infrastructure projects if they want to be reelected.
Grateful senior citizens, public school students and their families can become a solid source of support come election time.