BY IRA KAREN APANAY Senior Reporter

Despite their old age, the elders said on Monday they are planning to go back to Mendiola on Wednesday to press President Gloria Arroyo to sign the Expanded Senior Citizens Act (ESCA).

“The government’s explanations for the delay—that Congress has not yet transmitted the final version of the bill to the Executive Department—is unacceptable. We are planning to go back to Mendiola if the bill is not signed until Wednesday,” said 65-year-old retired public school teacher Salvacion Basiano, member of the Council of Elders of the Confederation of Older Persons’ Association of the Philippines (COPAP), in a press conference.

At the same time, the elderly scolded the presidential candidates debating at the University of the Philippines for using the poor in their campaign to get elected.

“We see in many politicians’ electoral campaign the use of the poor—in their TV ads and campaign promises, and in the delay of the signing of the bill,” said Basiano.

Basiano said that Expanded Senior Citizens Act is the people’s victory, especially of the senior citizens who drafted and lobbied for it for three years, not the legislators’, the politicians’ nor the government.

She added that COPAP members together with members of the Coalition of Services of the Elderly Inc. (COSE) and other groups under Kampanya para sa Makataong Pamumuhay (KAMP or the Life of Dignity for All Campaign) were all planning to go back to Malacañang on Wednesday.

Malacañang has announced that the President would sign on or before Valentine’s Day the bill exempting senior citizens from the 12-percent value-added tax and providing social protection measures such as free medical services in government hospitals, free membership to PhilHealth, and a monthly pension of P500 to the poorest among them.

Other vulnerable groups from urban poor and labor sectors, also with KAMP, expressed support for the elderly’s demand for social protection and criticism against use of the poor in the campaign ads.

“We deplore the exploitation of the poor in the campaign ads. The urban poor in our community in Pasig are still facing the threat of demolition. The presidential candidates’ and other candidates’ housing promises are empty. We have already come up with proposal for an on-site development or in-city relocation program, but none of them ever considered this,” said Manny Manato of the urban-poor formation Kilos Maralita.