MANILA - A senior citizens' group is urging the government to update the benefits and privileges of senior citizens under the law.

Atty. Franklin Quijano, Chairman of the National Commission of Senior Citizens said the law authorizing their benefits has been there since 2010 or for more than 10 years.

Among the benefits seniors enjoy is the 5 percent discount with a P1,300 threshold on certain basic goods in the supermarkets. But Quijano insists this should be updated due to elevated inflation.

Quijano says inflation has already hit prices so much that the P1,300 threshold is only equivalent to half a sack of rice.

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Senior citizens also get a 5 percent discount on electricity for consumption of not more than 100 kwh. This also needs to be updated, the group said, by allowing senior citizens to still enjoy the discount even if the consumption breaches the 100kwh usage.

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They are also entitled to a 20 percent discount on food, travel and medicines, as well as 5 percent off for select basic goods and on other utility bills.

SENIOR VS HOTEL

The issue of senior citizen discount has been highlighted after an elderly filed a case against a hotel for not honoring the senior citizen discount.

The hotel reportedly denied the request for a senior citizen discount since the price was already on promo.

But in today's Teleradyo Serbisyo radio program Gising Pilipinas, the Department of Trade and Industry confirmed that the hotel has no registered promo and the senior citizen should have been given a 20 percent discount.

DTI Asec. Amanda Nograles said the general rule is that the senior citizen cannot avail of both the senior citizen discount and the promo discount. But if the promo is legitimate, he or she should choose whichever discount is higher.

The issue was brought to mediation at the DTI but both parties were not able to reach an agreement, hence the court case.

Nograles said the DTI won't be issuing any comment on the case since it is still ongoing.

As of the latest estimate, there are already 10.3 million senior citizens in the Philippines, or over 8 percent of the population.

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