CONTINUING education is one of their opportunities, as well as employment. Just because you’re retired, it doesn’t mean you don’t get to be employed. [The law] actually allows them to be employed,” said Germaine Trittle Leonin Department of Social Work and Development (DSWD) National Coordinating and Monitoring Board unit head.
The private sector is encouraged to hire the elderly, as long as they are willing and able, allowing the elderly to be productive despite their age.
“The only different thing is their status, but they can continue studying, they can continue working,” she said.
Local government units are also encouraged to grant additional benefits and privileges to the senior citizens within their jurisdiction through ordinances.
However, the improvements and developments in the elderly sector cannot be owed to government action alone. Notable to the Philippines is the active participation of the senior citizens in lobbying for initiatives that forward their best interests and recognize their contribution to nation-building.
“They continue to share their knowledge about the laws, making sure they reorient themselves with the policies. There is constant capacity-building among themselves,” Leonin said.
Despite the significant developments toward achieving a better life for the senior citizens in the country, a visible international law forwarding the rights of the elderly is yet to be achieved.
“Senior citizens don’t have a [United Nations] convention. There’s one on the rights of the child, on the rights of the PWDs [persons with disability], Cedaw [Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women] for the women. The elderly, again, are left behind. There are talks for a UN convention, but they are still ongoing,” Leonin added.
Although the Universal Declaration of Human Rights legally obliges governments to realize the right of all people, it does not explicitly recognize the right of older people. Establishing a United Nations convention on the rights of older people compels governments to recognize and address the needs and concerns of the elderly with a definitive legal framework, guidance and support from the UN.
Along with movement advocating for a United Nations convention on the rights of older people, the government is still working to build a better world for the elderly. The social-pension provision, as mandated by the Expanded Senior Citizen Act of 2010, should be reviewed every two years by Congress.
However, a clear emerging trend of the increasing number of abandoned elderly, as well as those requiring special attention, coupled with the lack of elderly residential and care facilities, remains to be solved.
While the DSWD has conducted trainings in communities for basic caregiving, the practice is still not widespread. The department now only maintains four elderly-care facilities in the whole country due to the devolution of basic services—one in Quezon City, Metro Manila; another in Tanay, Rizal; one in Tagum City, Davao; and the fourth in Zamboanga.
These facilities, however, only temporarily cater to the needs of the abandoned and neglected, with the exception of the elderly facility in Tanay, Rizal. The other three are mandated to assist their clients to look for their families within a month, but are required to transfer them to another institute that can provide for their needs over a longer period of time.
Leonin said the government is now looking into the possibility of bringing it back to an elderly home-care facility per region, if not per province, because of the increasing demand.
“There’s a clamor [for it], even the senators, the congressmen, are realizing the need for it. We really need to build more facilities, especially since there are no more caregivers [in the country],” Leonin said.
Among various efforts from Congress is the House bill filed by Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian of the First District of Valenzuela last year, entitled “Homes for the Abandoned Seniors Act of 2014,” that would establish in every municipality and city a nursing home catering to the needs of abandoned senior citizens to be managed in cooperation with the DSWD.
The demographic change resulting into the rising number of elderly not only in the country, places more pressure on the government and society to adequately respond to the increasing political, economic, and social demands of the elderly sector.
Faye Carreos and Lea Salvosa / Special to the BusinessMirror