MANILA -- United Senior Citizens party-list Rep. Milagros Aquino Magsaysay has filed a bill that seeks to regulate and accredit private, for-profit residential care facilities or group homes for the elderly.
In her explanatory note for House Bill 8167, Magsaysay said the authority of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to regulate and accredit only covers public or government-run facilities.
"Most private, for-profit residential care and group homes for senior citizens are not being regulated by either DSWD or DOH, except for the mandatory business permits from the local government units," she said.
Magsaysay said the clientele these facilities and group homes are catering to are considered a vulnerable sector in need of special care.
“Thus, there is a need to put these institutions under the regulatory powers of a proper government agency tasked with looking after the welfare of this sector, our senior citizens or elderly.” Magsaysay said.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority in a 2022 press release, senior citizens constitute 8.5 percent of the household population in the Philippines.
The Commission on Population and Development said in 2022 that that figure will rise.
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