PHILIPPINES: Senior citizens? Who cares?

. MANILA, Philippines / BusinessWorld / January 28, 2009 Opinion Capital View By Mercedes B. Suleik Got your attention, did I? Well, many senior citizens feel that government and business do not really care about them. Yeah, yeah, there’s RA 9257 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2003. But in quite a few instances, it’s more observed in the breach. If not, businesses, particularly drugstores, go around it, by citing the E-VAT law, so that the net effect of the so-called 20% discount for medicines that elderly people get is really only 8% since the 12% value-added tax is charged to them after the pretended discount is given. There’s this long-time complaint of senior citizens regarding their plea to be exempted from paying certain taxes that tend to cut down their retirement incomes (measly for retired government employees), if any, which neither the Executive nor the legislators of the land, seem to heed. Of course, more headline-making concerns occupy them, and after all, senior citizens are only a fraction of the total population, and maybe, most of them are even too health-impaired to go to the polls, and that’s what really counts, right? Legalists say that the tax code does not exempt the elderly from paying the 12% VAT. Who cares what moralists think? Practically speaking, the imposition of the VAT, especially by pharmaceutical firms, defeats the purpose of granting senior citizens the 20% discount. Some legislators have said that they are trying to correct the inequity that the Senior Citizens law has failed to correct, but to my mind all that is sound bite, and certainly, dangled to the elderly much like you give a baby a pacifier. It’s no secret that the cost of living has risen (especially at this time when the world-wide recession has extended its tentacles to our shores) almost beyond the reach of low-income people, among them the elderly, and so the need to extend all sorts of economic assistance to senior citizens is imperative. Aren’t these senior citizens people who have spent the best part of their lives for their family and their community? And hey, weren’t these senior citizens taxpayers for most of their lives? Surely, it has to be a matter of gratitude, and an expression of compassion that they should be extended the courtesy if not affection they deserve, especially from their government. Unfortunately, RA 9257 has become among the laws that have somehow been forgotten, after the hoopla about how Congress had passed it, and the photo-ops and press releases by the principal authors had filled the front pages. Someone plaintively commented that it’s not just the government and business that completely forget about senior citizens. Among them are the previous offices, factories, and other establishments where the elderly used to work. In their time of employment, they had free access to the medical personnel of their establishments — consultations, hospitalization, even basic medicines. Likewise, all their working lives, they have contributed to Medicare/Philhealth...and while they were young, being healthy, they hardly ever used the privilege. Retired, and now out of work, they no longer have those privileges. Isn’t this the time they need all of that? Someone I know spent over P300,000.00 in hospitalization a year after she had retired. There have been quite a few of my former officemates who have been in the same situation, after retirement. What tremendous savings companies make, because big hospitalization expenses are usually incurred when the elderly are no longer employed by them! (And what about the medicines that the elderly have to take for maintenance and continued good health — discounts for which under the flawed Senior Citizens Law are a mere pittance?) May I suggest that the legislators take some time off their busy "investigations" and impeachment efforts, and instead look into the possibility of also enacting a law that would mandate establishments to provide continued health privileges to their retired employees. I realize that this should not necessarily mean for them to enjoy the same privileges such as hospitalization, but some kind of subsidy, perhaps, as well as the right to continued consultation with the doctors of their former firms and perhaps free basic medicines. I look at this as some kind of "payback" for the years of service that their former employees have faithfully rendered. Sadly, these employees, on reaching retirement age, are like those movie characters who "ride off into the sunset" before "THE END" is flashed on the screen. Filipinos are known to uphold the tradition of taking care of their elderly relatives. Indeed, our Constitution provides that it is the duty of the family to take care of its elderly members while the state may design programs of social security for them. This is found in the provision: "the State shall adopt an integrated and comprehensive approach to health development which shall endeavor to make essential goods, health and other social services available to all the people at affordable cost. There shall be priority being given to the needs of the underprivileged, sick, elderly, disabled, women and children." Perhaps this might be a good time to remind us all about what St. Thomas Aquinas wrote about justice: "Justice is a habit whereby a man renders to each one his due by constant and perpetual will. Just as love of God includes love of neighbour, so too the service of God includes rendering each one his due." As well, the great Pope John Paul II wrote in 1987: " The option or love of preference for the poor is an option or special form of primacy in the exercise of Christian charity to which the Tradition of the Church bears witness. Today, the world-wide dimension of the social problem cannot but embrace the musltitude of the hungry, the needy, and above all those without hope." (Sollicitudo Rei Socialis) The elderly deserve not only justice, but most especially, caritas...charity...love. So, do government, business, and employers really care about senior citizens? I pray so. mbsuleik@gmail.com © 2008 BusinessWorld Publishing Corporation