Two thousand more for senior citizens

CEBU, Philippines - Mayor Michael Rama announced yesterday that the city will add P2,000 to the financial assistance to senior citizens this year.

Rama made the announcement during his State of the City Address (SOCA) yesterday afternoon. The mayor announced that the P2,000 additional assistance will be released this December and will be included in the Supplemental Budget.

Last month, the senior citizens received an initial P3,000 of the yearly P5,000 financial assistance. By December, they will enjoy P4,000 more.

Rama also plans to add P3,000 to the financial assistance next year and another P2,000 the year after such that the yearly financial assistance would amount to P12,000 by 2014.

Hours before his SOCA, Rama led the soft opening of a 3,033-square-meter area where a park for senior citizens would be developed.

The area across the executive building of the City Hall used to be the location of a condemned warehouse that Rama asked the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to demolish and convert into a park.

The “Senior Citizens Park” will be developed through a public-private-partnership. Initial works, which would cost P663,649 would include landscaping, construction of pavements, sidewalks and greening.

The design of the park is based on the Fuente Circle Park with a fountain in the middle. The façade will face the ocean.

Hours after the park’s soft opening, senior citizens listened to Rama’s State of the City Address (SOCA) in the afternoon.

“Daghan siya’g nahimo. Sa senior citizen lang daan, kada-tuig naa may increase. Dako na kaayo na nga tabang,” said Florentina Malazarte, 66, of Barangay Taptap, a mountain barangay.   (FREEMAN)