EDITORIAL - The charade of the seniors fund

There is so much controversy regarding the non-payment/partial payment/delayed payment of the P12,000 yearly allowance for senior citizens of Cebu City. What most people do not realize is that the real controversy is why the city has to give so many allowances to so many people. The city is not a welfare state. And while it has an obligation to look after its citizens, nowhere does it obligate the city to spend more than its capacity to earn what it has to spend.

For while it may look good on paper to be able to give allowances to certain sectors of the community, the question has to be asked whether it is fair to the other sectors who actually make up the tax base of the city and who, as taxpayers, deserve to be served commensurate to their contribution for the upkeep of the city. For it is not fair for taxpayers to be deprived of the services due them because the city is spending their money on expenses other than services.

The city is not in the pink of fiscal health. In fact, with it has outstanding debt obligations running into the billions. It is in a situation that hardly calls for it to be so liberal and generous in doling out allowances. Take the case of the allowances for seniors. While it is true the P12,000 per year can brighten up the day for seniors, in real practical terms it hardly makes a dent in their actual needs.

These actual needs can best be served by an efficient health services program that can be sufficiently funded without having to add allowances that do not really amount to much. Indeed, we have heard of stories about these allowances just being squandered on non-essentials. It is not our intention to deprive seniors of anything but their needs can be served more efficiently and directly by other means.

The truth of the matter is that the city is forcing these allowances on itself not out of some great humanitarian inspiration but because allowances make for a very potent political tool for the politicians who manufactured these programs. If true welfare had been the underlying cause for these allowances, pray tell if any of these allowances were proposed by particular agencies tasked with particular mandates specific to the needs of particular sectors.

None of these programs was the brainchild of a particularly-oriented agency. All of them originated as some bright idea of some politico, the brilliance being that the motive can easily be hidden by the act undertaken. Who, for instance, would want to talk about motives when P12,000 can bring a smile to people who are already in the twilight of their years. If only the seniors knew how, for such a pittance, they have been used, their ages exploited.

And now the program gets bogged down by such encumbrances as non-payment/partial payment/delayed payment of allowances? Just look at the tenor of the questions raised pertaining to these encumbrances. It has politics written all over it. But then, what can you expect when it was not genuine concern but politics that gave birth to the allowances in the first place. If it was genuine concern, wouldn't realistic, efficient and consistent health services be better?