How senior citizens (and gov’t) get cheated through discounts

A senior citizen is entitled to a 20-percent discount on medicine purchases, doctor’s bills, hospitalization bills, restaurant bills, transportation fares, etc., as mandated in the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010.

But oftentimes, private establishments treat senior citizens as undesirable customers to be attended last, if not halfheartedly. They even cheat the senior citizens by giving them a lesser discount than is due them under the law, as many of them can’t compute on the spot how much this should actually be. For example, the published regular rates of airline fares; less the 20-percent discount, they are in fact cheaper than the promo rates!

Recently, a hospital in Cebu deducted only 16 percent from a senior citizen’s hospital bill. When a complaint was sent to its president, he took no action. The husband had to personally confront the hospital director who immediately prepared the refund check for P21,000 that was immediately signed by the hospital treasurer. Which indicated that the hospital’s management knew that the patient had been cheated in her hospital bill payment.

Another senior citizen who was admitted to the same hospital had a similar complaint. The billing clerk explained that “they don’t give a full discount to the type of room used (the less costly)” and refused to pay back the P740-“paid discount.”

In yet another case, a senior citizen wanted to buy a wheelchair but was refused a discount, unless he could show a doctor’s prescription. When the senior citizen complained to the Office of Senior Citizens’ Affairs (Osca), the chair told him a prescription was indeed required under the law. The senior citizen asked that he be shown the law requiring such; the chair cited an inapplicable provision. After consulting a lawyer, the Osca chair later admitted his mistake.

A restaurant wanted me to sign a P175-receipt for a P47-discount. I signed only for the P47. Otherwise, they could have claimed P175 as reimbursement for my P47-discount.

In all the above cases, the concerned establishments were either not aware that discounts are reimbursed to them by the government as deductions from their income tax payable; or, if they are, they just don’t want to do the accounting work entailed. And when they do the accounting work, they deduct the full 20-percent discount from their income tax liabilities for understated discount amounts, thus illegally profiting from the difference. Or simply inveigle you to sign a fraudulent receipt overstating the discount.

The Senior Citizens Law provides penalties for violations thereof. I wonder if any violator has been punished for such violations. It’s either because senior citizens do not assert their right to the discount or complain when cheated. Or maybe the Osca chair simply does not understand the law.

Senior citizens, wherever they are, should band together to uphold their rights. In the Philippine Association of Retired Persons (PARP), members are reminded to be more assertive of their benefits. They are provided with laminated discount checker decals that are attached to the back of their senior citizens ID card, to induce restaurants to give the correct discount on their food bills. Senior citizens are also instructed to loudly protest so that other senior citizens who hear them will do the same in a similar situation.

We invite all senior citizens to become members of PARP and join its effort to protect and promote the interest of all senior citizens, and of the government from being cheated by private establishments using their claims to senior citizen discount reimbursements.

—AMADO F. CABAERO SR., chairman emeritus, Philippine Association of Retired Persons