Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Senior Citizens' Concerns

          Senior Citizen’s requirement in the Philippines is that you must be 60 years old and up before you could register with DSWD (Dept. of Social Welfare and Development ) as such. Being a senior citizen you can avail the benefits of having a 20% discount on your food, medicines, groceries, fare and recently even in  the electric bills. You just have to present your senior citizen ID and purchase slip for groceries and medicines.
         
            On one of my jeepney ride, it happened that one of my co-passengers is a senior citizen. She is talking to an acquaintance. They are concerned of a rumor that there is already a proposed bill to the senate stating a change of age bracket of senior citizen, from 60 to 70. On my co-passenger’s opinion, 70 years old is already too old and may not anymore avail the benefits, that it might just be a rumor. On the other hand, it might be true because senior citizens still occupies a certain percentage on the total population of the country and that the privileges given might have a high impact on the industry.Still, a 70 year old Filipino is already too old to purchase some groceries,to buy some medicines or to even ride on a public utility like jeepney to be able to enjoy the 20% discount. Hope this is still a rumor so that mostly of the elderly would be benefited.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Lost Cellphone

            It is another jeepney ride with a little funny incident. When I rode the jeepney this morning, I wondered why some of the passengers kept on looking below the seats. One of the passengers lost her cellphone  while riding the jeepney and she couldn't find it. It is her new cellphone after she recently lost the former one and that she couldn't memorize the number. Our co-passengers kept on looking below their seats. When we are already in the city proper, one  of the passengers finally found the cellphone on the corner part of the jeepney five seats away from its owner.Some of the passengers teased the owner that if it took a little longer before she found her cellphone, she would already be bursting into tears. Some advised her to memorize her number so that it could be easily located while others didn't mind. Well, it here goes my jeepney ride.