Consultative meetings are currently being held by the local government of Manila in preparation for the orderly payout of the doubled monthly allowance for senior citizens for the months of April, May and June 2025.
It was learned that Mayor Honey Lacuna has directed Office for Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) chief Elinor Jacinto to take charge of the said consultative meetings with all the 896 barangays in the six districts of Manila.
Lacuna said the activity is aimed at ensuring that the masterlists and payrolls of the barangays are updated and in proper order, just like in the last payout made by the city during the first quarter.
Under the process, the masterlist becomes the basis of the payroll and the amount that will be released for the senior citizens of each district.
In connection with this, Lacuna said she highly commends and expresses gratitude to all barangay chairpersons, barangay secretaries and all other barangay officials who are authorized and in charge of preparing the updated senior masterlist in their respective areas of jurisdiction, saying their job is all too important for the city and its senior citizens numbering about 200,000 in all.
Jacinto said that from P500, Lacuna had the senior citizens’ allowance increased to P1,000 a month through an ordinance she signed in October last year, so that the senior citizens’ doubled quarterly allowance of P3,000 each began for the months of from January to March 2025.
Heeding the constant requests of senior citizens themselves, Jacinto said Lacuna had ordered that their allowance be distributed via a cash payout specifically to make things easier, as the elderly complained of manye difficulties they encountered in the old system employed before Lacuna assumed the mayorship, using the PayMaya.
According to Jacinto, the lady mayor has shown her full trust and confidence in barangay chairpersons that they can and will conduct the payouts in the most convenient and orderly way possible for the senior citizens.
The OSCA chief said that the mayor also trusts that the barangay chairmen will insulate the allowance from politics, saying: “Pahalagahan po sana natin ang tiwalang ibinigay ng ating alkalde. Lahat po tayo ay tatanda.”
Lacuna notes that senior citizens have been waiting for their allowance which is the city government’s small way of helping augment their personal expenses.
