PGMA signs EVAT exemption for senior citizens
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President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today signed into law the bill exempting the country’s estimated 4.6 million
senior citizens from paying the 12 percent expanded value added tax (EVAT) on basic purchases and other
essential goods and services.
This was announced today by Deputy Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar.
Called the Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010 (Republic Act 9994), the new law enables senior citizens to
enjoy fully the 20-percent discount on consumer goods and services provided under a 2003 legislation known
as RA 7342, otherwise known as “An Act to Maximize the Contributions of Senior Citizens to Nation Building,
Grant Benefits and Special Privileges, and for Other Purposes.”
The EVAT exemption for the senior citizens, or those who are 60 years old and above, applies to purchases of
medicines and essential medical supplies, accessories and equipment; fees of attending physicians; medical,
dental fees and diagnostic and laboratory fees; fares for buses, jeepneys, taxis, AUVs, shuttle services, public
railways, domestic air and sea transport craft.
The tax privilege also applies to services in hotels, restaurants and similar establishments; admission fees in
cinemas, theaters and other places of culture, leisure and amusement; and funeral and burial services.
Additionally, the bill provides each senior citizen a monthly stipend of P500, subject to the periodic review of
Congress in coordination with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).
In case of death of an indigent senior citizen, the amount of P2,000 will be awarded to his or her nearest kin as
benefit assistance.
Under the bill, senior citizens may also enjoy a five-percent discount on their water and electric bills, on
condition that the utilities are in the name of senior citizen and that the consumption is below 100 kilowatt-hours
of electricity and 30 cubic meters water a month.
The measure also expands the penalties for those who refuse to grant the benefits. Establishments and their
owners, managers, and personnel found violating any provision of the law face a penalty of between P10,000
and P50,000, or imprisonment of at least one month but not more than six months.
Administration congressmen led by House Speaker Prospero Nograles, one of the bill’s sponsors, described
the measure as a significant legislation that will form part of President Arroyo’s legacy to the Filipino people after
she bows out of office in June.
Rep. Reynaldo Uy (Samar), and Rep. Eduardo Zialcita (Parañaque) and Sen. Pia Cayetano, principal sponsors
of the bill in the House and in the Senate, hailed the measure as a tangible recognition of the role senior
citizens play in Philippine society.
Cayetano explained that the senior citizen’s discount under the original law passed in 2003, had effectively
translated to only eight percent since seniors were also required to pay the 12-percent EVAT in their purchase of
medicines, good and services.
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PGMA does a ‘tourist’ check on LGU-owned resort
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Mainit, Surigao del Norte -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo surprised her delegation and advanced party
here today when she shunned off a catered lunch at the Surigao del Norte College of Agriculture and
Technology (NSCAT) to have it at the Mainit Kasili Resort, a pilot local gov’t project which opened in 2008.
The Chief Executive arrived here in this town for the third leg of her Super Region tour, which is now focused on
Mindanao Agribusiness.
The catered food had to be brought from the NSCAT canteen to the LGU-owned resort, where the President took
time checking on the rooms and the Mainit Lake from the semi-circular restaurant with al fresco settings.
The hotel employees, mostly local residents, were so ecstatic having a close-up view of the President and
shouted hello and welcome greetings to her.
The President earlier gave financial support for the concreting of vital road networks, construction of barangay
halls and the Siana gymnasium, construction of day care centers in four districts of Mainit, the construction of the
legislative building, farm to market roads, the installation of Barangay Bagsakan, the improvement of the public
market and Tindahan Natin Operation in areas with high incidence of hunger. All the projects contributed to the
image and tourism potential of this town.
Funded by a P20- million loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines using the town’s internal revenue allotment
(IRA) of P36 million as collateral, the project is the brainchild of Mainit Mayor Ramon Beltran Mondano as his
way “of bailing out our town from poverty and to make us financially independent eventually from the national
government.”
Mondano, in an interview, said in his travels to Thailand and the United States, he kept inquiring why they were
so prosperous and “the answer I always get is tourism or a combination of agriculture and tourism, which I have
aplenty in my town.”
“I then hired consultants from Davao to do the feasibility study on the tourism potential of my town and the Land
Bank was impressed by the study that it lent me what I needed to put up the air-conditioned 52-room hotel of
which 30 rooms are dormitories, three swimming pools, one tennis court, a 300-seater convention center (with
auditorium), 2 videoke rooms and a 200-seater restaurant,” said the mayor.
“Since our soft opening in November 2009, our pools had been earning P7,000 a night and the rooms, though
still not a peak summer season, gets sold out for conferences and family tourists from neighboring towns and
barangays and from nearby provinces as well,” Mondano said.
Tourism sites in this town are: Lake Mainit, Lake Silop, Togonan Falls, Municipal Building, Kasili Resort and
Hotel, Mapaso Hot Spring, Dayano Cave and the Mabuyok Festival.
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PGMA vows to ‘liberate’ Surigao from poverty
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MAINIT, Surigao del Norte --- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo today vowed to “liberate” this province, the tenth
poorest in the country, from poverty by improving the productivity and incomes of rural farmers and opening
markets through ports and other vital infrastructures.
Surigao del Norte is part of Agribusiness Mindanao, one of five super regions mapped out by the Arroyo
administration in 2006 to spur the country’s economic development.
Addressing students, teachers, and government, business and civic leaders at the Surigao del Norte College of
Agriculture and Technology, the President also cited the need to liberate the youth from violence and poverty
which she called the “twin scourges of society,” through education and by expanding their opportunities to a
better life.
In the Bisayan dialect, she called Mindanao the bread basket of the country. She said: “We need to beef up the
region’s productivity some more through the provision of 300 composting facilities; giving MRFs (material
recovery facilities) so that garbage becomes fertilizers; building irrigation for 400,000 hectares in Mindanao and
spending P9 billion in farm to market roads and highways, including the Surigao-Davao coastal roads and ports.
The President was accompanied here by Press Secretary Crispulo Icban Jr., Transportation and
Communication Secretary Leandro Mendoza, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Horace Ramos,
Public Works and Highways Secretary Victor Domingo, Commission Hadja Luningning Omar of the
Commission on Higher Education, Mindano Agribusiness Super-region Champion Secretary Jesus Dureza,
and Agusan del Norte 1st District Rep. Jose Aquino.
Prior to the President’s arrival, the DENR held a composting demonstration for students and farmers using
used truck tires, carabao manure, farm wastes and farm or garden soil. Impressed, the President tasked the
DENR to coordinate with all LGUs to adopt the recovery facilities in all barangays as required by law.
The President cited the help of Land Bank of the Philippines which has so far provided P161 billion in
countryside loans of which P46 billion went to Mindanao. Most of these loans went to driers and post harvest
facilities to improve the quality of farm produce so they can command better prices in the market.
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