MANILA Mayor Honey Lacuna appealed to all the senior citizens in the city to already surrender their PayMaya cards which are expiring this month and have them changed to new senior citizen cards that do no have an expiration date.
Lacuna said that all PayMaya cards which were previously used by the senior citizens to get their monthly cash allowance, are set to expire by the end of September.
Since the senior citizens have been complaining to her office and that of the Office of Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) under 3linor Jacinto about the difficulties they encounter using the PayMaya and have been requesting to bring back the old system of being able to get their monthly allowance from their barangays which they find easier, Lacuna said she gave in to the popular demand.
With the payout to be carried out in barangays slated this month, Lacuna said that the remaining senior citizens who still have PayMaya may surrender said cards and have them replaced with OSCA cards which they can use for claiming their subsequent cash allowances.
Jacinto said that on orders of the mayor, those who are bedridden or immobilized and cannot leave their homes will be visited by the barangays upon request, so they too can be issued senior citizen cards.
Another option, according to Jacinto, would be to authorize an able-bodied companion to get their senior cards for them.
The authorized representative may either go straight to the OSCA office in City Hall or visit any “Kalinga sa Maynila” where OSCA booths are set up for the purpose.
It was learned that as requested by the senior citizens, their allowances will now be distributed by their respective barangays and will stay there for a week to give the elderly enough time to claim their monetary aid.
