Senior citizens, especially those 80 years old and above in Navotas City, received financial assistance and free medical check-ups last Tuesday.

The National Commission of Senior Citizens (NCSC) led the National Specialty Center for Geriatric Care Expanded Community Service and Free Medical Services at the Navotas City Library, during which senior citizens received cash gifts and free medical services.

One of the beneficiaries is Yolanda Tabilog, an 85-year-old resident of Barangay Tangos South, who was able to get herself checked by undergoing blood and urine testing.

"This event is important, especially for us senior citizens, because we no longer need to travel to other hospitals for these medical procedures," Tabilog said, adding that she sometimes travels to Manila just for check-ups.

NCSC partnered up with the Jose R. Reyes Memorial Medical Center in leading the medical mission.

One of the doctors who attended the event was Dr. Christine Baluca. According to her, the usual concerns of senior citizens were diabetes, hypertension, and osteoarthritis.

The senior citizens will return to the Navotas City Library at a scheduled time to receive their laboratory results, along with a month's supply of medical essentials.

She also stressed the importance of consistently taking hyperintensive medications and following dietary modifications.

"Even if they don't feel anything, in the long term, it could affect their health. We also want to prevent emergencies and chronic conditions like stroke and heart attack,” Baluca said, adding that doing intermittent medical intakes could further damage one’s health.

Financial assistance

Senior citizens aged 80, 85, 90, and 95 received P10,000 financial aid in line with the "Expanded Centenarians Act."

Linda Ramirez, the head of the Office of the Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA) of Navotas City, said that aside from the financial aid, they are also receiving birthday cash gifts from the local government.

“We also have a social pension from the DSWD-NCR, we have at least 13,000 beneficiaries of the social pension which is distributed every semester, at least P6,000 per semester.”

Ramirez estimates that there are more than 20,000 senior citizens in Navotas City.