Senior rights and privileges
I’ve always been extra thankful when I’m in a place and don’t have my senior citizen ID, which would entitle me to a senior citizens’ discount on purchases and the sales tax. In most establishments, the server or the cashier will patiently wait and ask if I have any government ID with my birth date, even a screenshot on my phone, and that would pass.
I always thought that was an extended courtesy, taking our seniors’ failing memories into account, which is why I say I express extra thanks. Some establishments even have you in their computer files linked to the cash register. I’m not sure if this is required by law, but that is certainly much appreciated.
The provisions of the law do get blurred at times because I’ve become a bit more “demanding” when I get close to despair over a large bill and ask at some establishments that, de facto, ask for two government IDs with your birth date even with the senior citizen ID since the senior citizen ID is a government ID and has your birth date.
Or who rejects a University of the Philippines (UP) ID because it does not have our birth dates? Fair enough, but I always like to point out that a UP ID is a government ID. I’ve met quite a few people who don’t know UP is government. The most amusing incident happened with a taxi driver who, when we passed by UP Manila, asked about UP tuition. When I replied that we don’t charge tuition if applicants pass the UP entrance exam, he was incredulous about UP being a government school, going on to ask why UP students and teachers rally so often against the government.
That required another long explanation where I had to explain it was UP’s duty to speak out when government officials and employees were corrupt. Many would agree and express hopes I’d join the rallyists, too, even if I use crutches (smile).
Going back to the eligibility provisions, I thought, wow, it’s been almost 15 years since I turned senior citizen and only now learned how it is defined. (For the first few years, I didn’t know the discount applied as well to the sales tax. The age bit is also a bit confusing—at one time, I was a nongovernment employee teaching part-time in Ateneo, which is nongovernment. Teaching in UP, I was officially retired only when I turned 75. But because I was appointed professor emeritus several years earlier, I remained a UP employee with many privileges of a non-retired employee.)
Confused? Well, last Friday, I attended a symposium at UP Diliman as a speaker and a listener on the topic (abbreviated): rights and duties of senior citizens, which turned out to be quite extensive, complicated, and continuously evolving.
Talk about old dogs learning new tricks: I didn’t know that all senior citizens are eligible for an 80th, 90th, and 100th cash gift from your local government, running, if my hearing was still functioning, P80,000, P90,000, and P100,000 for each of those milestone birthdays. (Again, if my hearing served me right, I did catch quite a few side comments from the senior citizens: “if we’re still alive.” We were advised by speakers to inform the local office for senior citizens ahead of time about an impending 80th, 90th, or 100th birthday because the local government might be low on funds and have to request the needed money in advance!)
Talking about old dogs learning new tricks, I loved the way ”Apir” has evolved. Apir is one of those cute government acronyms and means Annual Pensioners’ Information Revalidation.
It’s used specifically for proving eligibility to get your SSS (for the private sector) or GSIS (for government) pension, or both if you are eligible. Time was when you had to appear in person at SSS or GSIS and have your photograph taken. Then the government realized some senior citizens weren’t mobile enough to make the trip and would settle for a photograph taken at home while holding a newspaper dated on their birthday.
Now, they just ask for a selfie taken with your birth date attached.
Checking the veracity of the birth date provision does require a lot of trust, if you ask me, but I’m glad there’s enough of that on the part of GSIS and SSS. I worry about how many senior citizens trust their relatives with their bank ATM card and their code number to withdraw their pension funds from the machine. I’ve heard too many stories of family estafa going on for years, going back to when the senior relative was still alive but not always lucid, to years after the senior relative had long moved on to another world.
There’s so much to learn about senior citizens’ rights and privileges, and I worry that at our advanced age we’re bound to have lapses in getting the facts right. But I thought the UP symposium last week was important, a reviewer for some, and for others, a way to goad legislators at all levels (barangay to Congress) about needs that may require amendments to the laws.
There was one area that I brought up early in my talk, and this was criminal liability that should adjust for age. When criminals victimize the elderly, and even more so if the victim is both elderly and a relative of the criminal, shouldn’t the punishment be heavier, to include financial remuneration, maybe even the family of the criminal being held liable for the remuneration?
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