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Sunday, September 26, 2021

‘Beng is a blessing to us’

DESPITE THE demise of the Largo Vida program of the Climaco administration, senior citizens and their families continue to praise the local government for its unwavering support to the welfare of the elderly, and those who received the aid said “Beng is a blessing to us,” referring to the Zamboanga mayor.

 

Mayor Beng Climaco speaks with centenarian woman Angelina Santos, of Barangay Tumaga, as Councilor Pinpin Pareja looks on. Santos received a total of P50,000 incentives from the Climaco administration. (Bong Serondo)

A 100-year old woman from Barangay Cabatangan has recently received a total of P50,000 from Mayor Beng Climaco as counterpart of the local government’s incentives to senior citizens under Republic (Centenarians of 2016) Act 10868 which honor and grant additional benefits and privileges to centenarians. 

Climaco personally went to the house of Angelina Santos and handed her P30,000 covering the last payment of the incentive. The mayor was accompanied by Councilor Pinpin Pareja and social workers. 

Santos’ family thanked Climaco for the incentive, saying the money will greatly help them, especially at this time of the Covid-19 pandemic. She initially received P20,000 from the mayor in July this year.

In August, Climaco also distributed cash incentives to 75 senior citizens who are octogenarians and nonagenarians. The granting of incentives is pursuant to a local ordinance and one of the numerous benefit packages for senior citizens unveiled only during the administration of the mayor. 

The beneficiaries of the cash aid and their families thanked Climaco and the local government for the incentives.  

Climaco said the cash incentives is just one of the numerous benefit packages her administration has for senior citizens. She said the cash incentive will ensure that senior citizens will have funds to buy basic necessities such as medicines. She also assured her administration’s support and various benevolent programs for the elderly sector.  

Nonagenarians or those whose ages are from 90-99 years are to receive P20,000 each, and P10,000 each to octogenarians who are 80-89 years old. 

The City Social Welfare and Development Office and the City Treasurer’s Office facilitate the distribution of the incentives to beneficiaries of the program in coordination with the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs and the Federation of Senior Citizens Association.  

Opposition Councilors 

Climaco said senior citizens could have received more had not the opposition councilors trashed the Vida programs. Beneficiaries of the Vida programs blamed opposition councilors for “killing” the assistance intended for senior citizens and the disadvantaged sector of the community.

The opposition councilors, who are allies of former Congressman Celso Lobregat and incumbent Congressman Mannix Dalipe, removed the Vida program’s vital funding in the P4.38 billion 2021 Executive Budget. One such program is the Largo Vida, an initiative that Climaco started in 2018 and which she had intended to expand to over 60,000 beneficiaries this year. 

Climaco identified the opposition councilors as Monsi dela Cruz (now deceased); John Dalipe, BG Guingona, Mike Alavar, Litlit Macrohon, Khymer Olaso, Lilibeth Nuño, Cary John Pioc, VP Elago, Gerky Valesco and Jerry Perez. 

Dela Cruz and the younger Dalipe ran under Climaco’s political party, but eventually broke off ties after winning the 2019 polls and aligned themselves with Lobregat’s Team Colorao only to split with the group. Climaco defeated Lobregat in the last election after winning a landslide victory over the veteran politician.

Climaco said the actions of the opposition affected some 17,000 senior citizens and all 400 “Vida lifeliners,” including women and those who are out-of-school and mostly breadwinners of their families, who were tapped to tirelessly deliver health assistance door-to-door to every elderly beneficiaries of the Largo Vida. 

“These (Vida) programs were carefully planned by the Executive Department to be sustainable and to introduce a trailblazing brand of service to our constituents that is projected to have a significant impact in the lives of the target beneficiaries. These programs cannot be replaced by mere dole-outs and cash donations that were not studied and haphazardly thought-out. Those (opposition council) members who voted to remove funding for such vital programs must face the people of Zamboanga City and must be held responsible and accountable for such irrepressible action,” she said. 

“It is not just cash that is needed, we need a more comprehensive program that will genuinely and sustainably empower our people through medicines, access to critical social services and livelihood to make our people resilient and survive the day to day challenges while we are under a pandemic. Necesita kita dale servicio de calidad because our people deserve only the best,” the mayor added. 

It is only during the time of Climaco that such programs and social services benefited thousands of senior citizens and the vulnerable sector.   

“It is only during our administration that we were able to introduce a wide-range of social services to our senior citizens – birthday cash incentives, free maintenance medicines, free movie screening and other key forms of assistance.”

“We intend to expand these to a more comprehensive package, not only for our senior citizens, but also social packages for other vulnerable sectors especially for our society’s patriarchs and matriarchs, PWDs (persons with disabilities) and other vulnerable sectors, the marginalized, low-income families in disadvantaged rural and urban communities and most affected families of the Covid-19 pandemic, who are in need of these social protection programs, now more than ever,” Climaco said. 

Largo Vida

The Largo Vida program was supposed to originally get P187 million from the 2021 Executive Budget and also part of the local government’s social services is the “Ayuda La Vida program,” which would have P65 million budget to provide various sectors with livelihood programs, including those in the night market and “ukay-ukay” stall owners.

On the other hand, the “Cuida Vida program” or Soup Kitchen Program was originally to get P50 million allocation to cover mobile feeding initiatives in a bid to sustain the daily meals of the marginalized and most affected families of the Covid-19 pandemic.

An allocation of P50 million was also included in the budget for the “Salva Vida” program which is intended to provide food packs and hygiene kits to low-income families in disadvantaged rural and urban communities in the different barangays. The original budget likewise allocated P15 million for outreach programs to the 98 barangays, and P100 million for socialized housing programs.

And another P50 million for “Siembra Vida program” intended to provide training, livelihood and caravan projects, including activities of the agri-fishery sector; and a total of P906 million for investments in infrastructure and developmental projects. But all these were gone because the opposition councilors did not want it to continue. (Zamboanga Post)



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