BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved on first reading a proposed ordinance requiring the City Social Welfare and Development Office, through the Office of Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA), to produce plastic identification (ID) cards and button pins for senior citizens and appropriating the amount of P1.5 million for the said purpose.
The ordinance authored by Councilor Lilia A. Fariñas stated that senior citizens who qualify and have been duly certified by the CSWDO, through the OSCA, be issued with plastic ID cards as proof of their senior citizen eligibility, and shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges that Republic Act (RA) 9994 otherwise known as the Expanded Senior Citizens Act provide, including other laws, rules and regulations pertinent thereto.
As an added measure, the ordinance added senior citizens will be entitled to an optional button pin to be worn along the chest level for them to be readily identified as such, without the need to present their plastic ID cards, unless required for presentations by concerned authorities.
Under the proposed ordinance, it shall be unlawful for anyone besides the senior citizens to wear the official senior citizens button pin to whom it had been issued and shall be penalized with a fine of P500 for the first offense, P1,000 for the second offense and P3,000 and imprisonment for 5 days, or both upon the discretion of the court for the third offense.
The ordinance stipulated that the new senior citizen ID shall be polyvinyl chloride material measuring about 8 centimeters by 5 centimeters, its 4 corners shall be rounded, the front shall be colored, portrait in orientation and shall bear the needed information, the heading, the senior citizens photo, his or her full name, his or her identification number and bar code, the mayor’s name and signature and the official seal of Baguio City; the back shall be landscape oriented and shall bear the senior citizens address, date of birth, gender, names of 2 persons to notify in case of emergency together with their addresses and contact numbers, name and signature of the OSCA head and the front shall indicate the non-transferability of the ID as well as its validity for use nationwide and the back shall warn on penalties for violation of RAs 9257 and 9994.
The ordinance stipulated that all Baguio City senior citizens ID cards shall be deemed invalid in the city upon the issuance of the new plastic identification cards for senior citizens.
On the other hand, the ordinance stated all Baguio City senior citizens ID cards shall be replaced with the new plastic ID cards free of charge.
Further, all senior citizens applying for registration for the first time and for issuance of the new senior citizens ID free of charge shall submit duly accomplished application form; birth certificate, or any public document indicating the applicant’s Filipino citizenship and senior citizens status; barangay certificate of residency; proof of billing; and photocopy of voter’s ID or Comelec certificate of registration or Comelec certification of cancellation of registration.
All senior citizens applying for replacement of old ID cards with the new ones shall surrender their old IDs and submit the same items to the OSCA for processing and issuance.
Similar requirements shall be required from all senior citizens who have transferred residences from elsewhere to Baguio city provided that their barangay certificate shall indicate at least 6 months residency in the barangay.
By Dexter A. See
