Updated 6:49 p.m. / 12.24.24
ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews / 24 Dec) – Senior citizens, here’s a wonderful gift for you: Health Secretary Teodoro J. Herbosa announced on Monday that senior citizens no longer have to show their purchase booklets in the pharmacy to avail discount on medicines.
Senior citizens at an event in Davao City. MindaNews file photo
Herbosa, in a press statement posted on the website of the Department of Health, said that DOH AO No. 2024-0017 “deletes the requirement for seniors to present a purchase booklet to drugstores, which before accompanied valid identification and a doctor’s prescription, in order to get a discount.”
“I am also a senior citizen. I know it is hard to always bring a purchase booklet with you. Seniors need the discount on their medicines, and we must make it easy for them to get that,” he said.
“On behalf of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., we at the DOH give this gift of convenience and more affordable medicines to all of our senior citizens. Merry Christmas po!” he added.
Peterson Bergado, 62, of Cagayan de Oro City, lauded the DOH’s move, more so because many seniors become forgetful as they grow older.
Chona Lasaca, 60, also of Cagayan de Oro, said the requirement was difficult for many seniors because the booklets are often left behind at home or in another bag. “That would also shorten the transaction time at the pharmacy, because some people are so impatient you can hear what they’re thinking, ‘Here come the slow seniors again, delaying the queue,’’ she lamented.
Fleur Pantaleta, executive director of the Ateneo Zamboanga – Mindanao Institute, said both her parents – Jimmy is 64 and Flora, 60 – often forget their booklets, and thus usually cannot avail of discounts. “The few times my father get to bring the booklet, he’s complaining that it adds bulk to his bag,” she added.
“The booklet requirement is such a hassle that it defeats the purpose of social services for senior citizens,” Pantaleta said.
Romualdo Vega Jr., 64, operations and maintenance manager at the Agus 7 hydroelectric power plant of the National Power Corporation in Iligan City, hates the booklet requirement, too, especially when he travels. “Who brings the booklet when they travel?” he asked.
But Dr. Arnel Debalucos, a neurologist practicing in Iligan City, said he is in favor of the booklet so it would be easy to monitor if his patients have taken the medicines he prescribed. “If you ask them what medicines they’re taking, they can’t remember. But when you check what’s written on the booklet, you’d know,” he added.
Bergado, a former TV cameraman, hoped that Filipinos would not abuse the good gesture of the government, and advised non-seniors not to find ways to procure medicines through their senior citizen relatives just for the discount.
Lawyer Franklin M. Quijano, former chair of the National Commission of Senior Citizens, noted that as of the moment, the seniors still need their booklets when buying groceries, food items, and household materials unless the Department of Trade and Industry countermands its own order. (Bobby Timonera / MindaNews)
