PHILIPPINES: Senior citizens want 20 percent discount ‘restored’

. MANILA, Philippines (Philippine Daily Inquirer), September 5, 2008: By Jeannette Andrade Philippine Daily Inquirer Senior citizens are seeking the approval of laws that will restore the 20 percent discount granted to them earlier. At Thursday’s Senior Citizens Summit at the Amoranto Sports Complex’s Performing Arts Studio in Quezon City, the senior citizens claimed the discount had been cut to just 8 percent by the expanded Value-Added Tax (eVAT). Jorge Banal Sr., former Quezon City third district councilor and concurrent president of the Federation of Senior Citizens Associations of the Philippines (FSCAP) and the Regional Senior Citizens Federation (RSCF), said they were organizing a “Walk for Life” to the House of Representatives to dramatize their appeal. The discount on goods and services was provided for under the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2003. In Thursday’s summit, the senior citizens appealed for the immediate passage of “remedial legislation” that would restore the full discount. The FSCAP and RSCF, in a joint position paper, even sought an increase in the discount to 30 percent. Banal said they would march from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to the Batasan Complex during the Elderly Filipino Week from Oct. 1-7. “What the right hand gave as 20 percent senior citizens discount, the left hand should not take away through the 12 percent VAT,” he said. The march, he said, also aimed to inform the elderly of their rights and privileges as senior citizens. Sen. Loren Legarda, who was guest speaker during the event, announced that the Senate Committee on Social Justice and Rural Development was finalizing a committee report providing more benefits and better living conditions for senior citizens. © Copyright 2001-2008 INQUIRER.net