United Opposition (UNO) vice presidential candidate Jejomar C. Binay today slammed Malacanang for dragging its feet on the new Senior Citizens’ Benefits Law exempting the elderly from the Expanded Value Added Tax (EVAT), saying it took the Palace almost two months to publish the law.
And Binay sees more delays ahead because of provisions that require “a virtual convention of several government agencies and non-governmental organizations” to draft the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) and the persistent opposition of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to the measure.
Although Republic Act 9994 was signed by Mrs. Arroyo last Feb. 15, it was only on April 7, that its full text saw print in national newspapers, Binay said.
“It took the Palace 50 days to deliver a document to newspaper offices which are less than five kilometers from it. Even a senior citizen on crutches could do it in one day, “ Binay said.
“That the document travelled at a speed of one kilometer per 10 days is proof of Malacanang’s continuing official disdain for the bill,” Binay said, recalling that it took public opinion and the threat of daily protests from irate senior citizens to budge Mrs. Arroyo from her original position to veto the law.
There is the question of funding for the P500 monthly stipend for indigent seniors. There is no appropriation for that in the 2010 national budget. It doesn’t say in RA 9994 how the fund augmentation or transfers will be made. If you read the law it doesn’t state there that augmentation of the DSWD budget, to accommodate the funding need, will be automatic, “ he said.
Binay was referring to a provision in the expanded senior citizens’ benefits law that indigent seniors will receive a stipend of P500 a month, to be administered by the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
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