MANY seniors living in Quezon City have voiced their frustration over the exclusion by supermarkets, groceries and convenience stores in Quezon City of goods and other grocery items they consider basic. Older people in the city feel these grocery items should be included in the 5-percent discount privilege they receive.
The Office for Senior Citizens Affairs (Osca) recently clarified that it’s something beyond their control.
“We are only following rules and regulations set by the Department of Trade and Industry [DTI],” Baby Geronimo, Osca Quezon City operations officer, told the BusinessMirror.
The office’s response came after senior citizens lamented the exclusion of grocery items with good nutrients, like milk products, oat meal, oat bran and nonfood adult needs, like toiletries, are excluded from the 5-percent discount, while instant noodles and sardines are discounted.
“We have been clamoring for goods that are nutritious, like milk products, to be discounted by supermarkets, grocery and convenience stores since last year,” Geronimo said.
Even senior citizens, who are aware of the discount privilege, nationwide also air the same complaints, she noted.
But the DTI only told Osca that it is so far reviewing the issue, Geronimo said.
Aside from grocery items, senior citizens also complain about pharmacies in Quezon City that do not give senior-citizen discount on over-the-counter drugs, vitamins and minerals, and other supplements, she said.
Pharmacies clear themselves by saying that they are only abiding by the regulations of the Department of Health, Geronimo said.
Medicines discounted at 20 percent are only those specifically prescribed by the physician for the treatment of a particular disease, she noted.
If the prescription is for a heart ailment, the senior citizen will receive a 20-percent discount on medicines for that particular health condition only, Geronimo said.
Medicines including vitamins and minerals that are not prescribed by a physician are not discounted, she said.
The DTI’s Department Administrative Order (DAO) 3, Series of 2005, states grocery products that “may be subjected to the 5-percent discount” include canned sardines, instant noodles, meat loaf, luncheon meat and corned beef.
It further states, however, that evaporated-filled milk, condensed-filled milk, powdered milk, coffee, bread, sugar, cooking oil, processed meat, and soaps should also be discounted at 5 percent, regardless of the senior citizen’s financial status.
DOA 3, Series of 2005, also states that milk products prescribed by a physician for “therapeutic purposes” qualifies as medicine and the senior citizen will be given a 20-percent discount.
Purchasing the milk prescribed by a physician from supermarkets, groceries and convenience stores, however, forfeits the 20-percent discount on prescription items.
Under Republic Act (RA) 9994, senior citizens are entitled to a 20-percent discount on medical goods and services.
RA 9994, otherwise known as Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010, which amended RA 9257, seeks to give senior citizens a 20-percent discount on grocery items.
However, the DTI and the Department of Agriculture set the discount at 5 percent at the maximum of P1,300 worth of basic goods per week.
Even imported products under the category of basic necessities are “subject to the 5-percent discount.”
DOA 3, Series of 2005 states that a retailer who refuses to honor the 5-percent discount privilege of senior citizens may be charged with criminal or administrative case or both.