MANILA Mayor Joseph E. Estrada has ordered the strict implementation of Ordinance 8848 or the “City of Manila Ordinance against Elderly Abuse, Exploitation and Neglect” authored by Councilor Ernesto Dionisio Jr. and approved last year by the city council.
The ordinance seeks to protect the physical, mental and social well-being of the 132,000 senior citizens registered in the city of Manila.
Citing a study by the University of the Philippines-National College of Public Administration and Governance, Estrada noted the extraordinary vulnerability that elders face, since maltreatment and abuse are almost always doled out to them by their own kin. Children of the elders rank first in the usual perpetrators of elderly abuse, followed by their grandchildren.
“Respect for our elders has been an integral part of our Filipino culture, but unfortunately, we still hear of incidents of abuse, exploitation and neglect of senior citizens. This must be stopped,” Estrada said.
Earlier this year the House committee on population and family relations approved several bills seeking to enforce penalties for elder abuse in the country.
Long before this, however, the cities of Manila and Makati have been serving as trail-blazers in elderly-care provisions in the country. Makati’s 77,865 senior citizens have been receiving cash gifts, health benefits and even free-movie passes care of the local government.
Manila elders enjoy free medical checkups, hospitalization, medicine and other health-care services from the six city-run public hospitals and 59 community-health centers. They also receive P500 cash gift on their birthdays. In March last year Estrada founded the P100,000 cash-gift program for citizens of Manila who reached the age of 100.
Estrada is known to have a soft spot for elders, even more after the passing of his own mother, Doña Mary Ejercito, in 2009, at the age of 103.
This is why he wants to prevent cases of elderly abuse, neglect and maltreatment among his constituents. Ordinance 8848 imposes a fine of P5,000 and a one-year imprisonment, or both, to any person who “willfully subjects an elderly person to ill-treatment, whether physical or verbal, in such manner as to degrade the inherent value of his person…or willfully subjects an elderly person to prolonged mental or emotional harassment”.
“They are very frail and vulnerable to any ill treatment, and making them suffer, for me, is a horrible act,” Estrada said.
1 comment