Senior Citizen Party-list Rep. pleads with Pres. Duterte to rectify “PhilHealth for Senior Citizen

Senior Citizen Party-list Representative Milagros Aquino-Magsaysay 

By Mike Navarro

LALA, Lanao del Norte (June 16, 2018) - SENIOR Citizen Lawmaker Rep. Milagros Aquino-Magsaysay pleads with Duterte’s government to correct the injustice.

"Dahil sa patuloy na ambag ng mga senior citizen sa ating lipunan at yamang bilang na ang mga taon na nalalabi sa aming buhay, hiling namin ang agarang aksyon para matiyak ang kumpleto at tuluy-tuloy na implementasyon ng Mandatory PhilHealth Coverage for Senior Citizens Act (Republic Act-10645)," Congresswoman Aquino-Magsaysay said.

She added that "As Senior Citizen Party-list Representative, I appeal to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to rectify the injustice committed against us. The President is also a senior citizen. The injustice was also done unto him."

She also ask the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to do in the 2019 budget that they will soon propose to Congress to restore the amount diverted from the senior citizen, the budget that was supposed to cover many more senior citizens than what PhilHealth had reported.

Only 2.8 million of senior citizens were covered by the budget allocation out of the 6.2 million registered senior citizen members in the National Health Insurance Program in all over the country.

They plead with the Duterte administration to replace in the 2019 budget all the funds that were originally intended for SC but did not directly benefit the SC patients. That is Php20-billion just from 2016 and billions more from 2014 and 2015.

"Sa isang sektor ng lipunan na 4 sa 10 ang may malubhang sakit o kapansanan, labis ang pangangailangan ng ating mga nakatatanda para sa kasiguraduhan sa kalusugan. Malaki po sana ang mabuting epekto ng pagpasa ng Mandatory PhilHealth Coverage for Senior Citizens Act, ngunit apat na taon na po ang nakakalipas ay hindi pa po ito tuluyang napapakinabangan ng lahat ng ating senior citizens. Huwag naman po sana umabot na mamatay na lamang sa sakit ang ating mga nakatatanda dahil sa maling paggamit ng mga pondo para sa programang ito. Panahon na po para itama ang mali"the Congresswoman said. (With PR from the office of Cong. Magsaysay)