‘Unknown’ senior citizen discounts can reach P117M
‘Unknown’ senior citizen discounts can reach P117M
ATTY. ROMULO MACALINTAL
MANILA–Lawyer Romulo Macalintal called on senior citizens like him to execute a waiver in order to channel unclaimed discounts in electricity and water bills to a common fund.
Macalintal, who champions senior citizens’ rights, said not many senior citizens know that they are entitled to a minimum 5% discount in their monthly electricity and water bills provided their consumption does not exceed 100 kilowatts per hour (kwh) of electricity and 30 cubic meters of water per month.
Macalintal calculated that the common fund can translate to P117 million a year, which is enough to finance homes for the aged or finance the health needs of indigent senior citizens.
“Experience shows… that most of our [senior citizens] are not aware of the said benefit or the law [and] is not properly implemented due to the failure of SCs [senior citizens] to comply with certain requirements and for lack of proper registration of these water and electric meters once the owner turns 60 years old or becomes a senior citizen,” Macalintal said.
He is referring to Republic Act 9994 or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, the same law he invoked in his case versus restaurants who refused to give him his discount since he was without a senior citizens’ ID.
He said some senior citizens believe that the discount is not large and not worth the hassle to claim.
Macalintal disagrees.
“Under existing power rates of P11 per kWh, 100 kWh will cost P1,100 and 5% thereof will give an elderly a discount of P55 per month. On the other hand, the cost of 30 cubic meters of water under the progressive rate of Maynilad is P1,700 and 5% thereof gives an elderly a discount of P85 per month. While there are 7 million SCs at present, only a conservative estimate of 100,000 SCs have electric meters and 50,00 water meters individually registered in their names,” he said.
His calculations show a P66 million electricity bill discount a year and P51 million water bill discount a year, or a total of P117 million.
“With P117M a year, we can just imagine how much fund the SCs would save and pool together for the coming so many years of their remaining life. And even if only one-half of this amount or P58.5M a year is pooled together, we can practically build medical facilities or houses for the indigent senior citizens almost every year,” he said.
“Thus, I would like to call on all our SCs to place all these unclaimed SC discounts to a common fund or to pool them together. We could execute a waiver where these SC discounts would be channeled to that common fund with an able, credible and trusted managers in the like of Manny V. Pangilinan. And thereafter, we could look forward to a brighter and happier group of Filipino senior citizens with a common cause,” he said.
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