Nonagenarians and centenarians to receive cash incentives

October 14, 2019 Metro BLISTT

The City Council approved an ordinance that will grant a cash award of P10, 000.00 to nonagenarians. The ordinance will also increase the cash award of centenarians from P10, 000.00 to P20, 000.00.

The ordinance was approved by the City Council on September 23, 2019 and was signed by Mayor Benjamin Magalong on October 2, 2019. A nonagenarian is a person who is between 90 and 99 years old while a centenarian is a person who is 100 years old or older.

To qualify for the award, the nonagenarian/centenarian should be a permanent resident of Baguio City for at least five years up to the date of the award of recognition. The cash award will be given to the awardee in a fitting ceremony.

However, if the awardee could not personally receive the award due to exceptional circumstances, the concerned city officials will “visit the place of residence of the awardee to personally give the award.”

Aside from the cash award, the awardee will also receive a plaque of recognition and a congratulatory resolution from the City of Baguio. The awardee will also entitled to a regular medical check-up and will be visited by government health personnel on a monthly basis.

On top of these incentives, the centenarian will be entitled to receive an additional P5, 000.00 to be given as a birthday gift during his/her lifetime which will start a year after the centenarian was honored by the city.

During the first year of implementation of the ordinance, all individuals aged 90 to 99 will simultaneously receive the cash award of P10, 000.00. However, in the succeeding years of implementation of the ordinance, only those who turned 90 years old will receive the said cash award.

Ordinance 84-2019 further amends Ordinance 45-2013 (Honoring the Centenarians of the City of Baguio, as amended by Ordinance 53-2016). The amendatory ordinance will be known as “The Nonagenarian and Centenarian Awards Ordinance of the City of Baguio.”

”It is important to recognize their value, their dedication and their contributions not only for the benefit of their family but also for the community they lived in. Their immense self-discipline, healthy lifestyle and clean-living practices for them to be able to reach the age such ages is admirable,” the ordinance reads.

Jordan G. Habbiling/ABN