LUCENA CITY, Quezon—Senior citizens in Quezon province flex their aging muscles as they seek to strengthen their ranks to alleviate their plight in their twilight years.
“We are profiling our members province-wide as a way to strengthen our ranks so we can be recognized as an organization and ask for additional budgetary allocation and other benefits from concerned government agencies,” said Justo Maralit, provincial federation chairman of the Office of Senior Citizens Affairs (Osca) in Quezon during their quarterly meeting held at the Bulwagang Kalilayan here on June 29.
“As of now, we are going to lobby for the passage of a resolution from the Sangguniang Panlalawigan for the establishment of the Provincial Office of Senior Citizens Affairs and ask the help of Quezon Gov. David Suarez to realize it,” said Maralit, the Osca head in his hometown of Sariaya with 13,337 members, 1,132 of whom are pensioners.
Maralit, a retired police senior inspector in 2005, said Osca members in Sariaya are asked to contribute P300 each: P270 for Damayang Pambayan and P30 for the passbook. In time of need, they receive double the amount they have contributed as member.
He said 5 percent of their municipal budget goes to Osca as budgetary allocation and that four of their Osca members who are over 100 years old have recently received P100,000 as centennial benefits from the central office of the Department of Social Welfare and Development as mandated by law.
Billy Evallar, senior-citizen provincial federation president and also Osca head of Calauag, said they have to do profiling of all their members and they need to be registered with Securities and Exchange Commission so they can avail themselves of funds from the region.
Jeremias Ortillan, 70, and Osca head of the island town of Jomalig, a sixth-class municipality with 7,000 population and more than 500 Osca members, said it’s a good thing they are bonding together so they can have more benefits as senior citizens.