National Commission on Senior Citizens, Quo vadis?

With the recent imbroglio (internal leadership crisis), among others issues, besetting the National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC), it is now facing another setback that could further decelerate its current slow-paced operations since it was formed five years ago through Republic Act No. 11350 or the National Commission of Senior Citizens Act of 2019. To date, NCSC should have already assumed its critical role in taking care of the senior citizens from the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) if only it had facilitated a seamless transition.

As it is, the only visible commissioner (out of the six commissioners), is its chair, Franklin M. Quijano, who seems to be solely running the agency. Given this scenario, NCSC could not really be expected to attain its mandate and be able to effectively deliver whatever plans, programs, and activities that would redound to the benefits and welfare of all the senior citizens.

As of March 1, 2024, NCSC has only registered through its Elderly Data Management System about 4.4 million senior citizens out of the total population of 12.2 million. Obviously, the NCSC cannot expeditiously generate such database by itself sans the assistance of the other stakeholders.

This development could have been adequately addressed if the NCSC seriously took its mandate by activating a task force (headed by the NCSC chair) composed of the heads of local government units (LGUs), the DSWD, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), and Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Senior citizens’ data from Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs-LGU, the DSWD, and the PSA could have been tapped through an enhanced elderly data management system tweaked by the DICT.

Indeed, there is truth to what Eddie Jaku said: “Alone we are powerless, but together we are strong.”

Emiliano M. Manahan Jr.,advocate and author, [email protected]