National Coordinating and Monitoring Board

On the other hand, various senior citizens associations are still allowed to issue their own membership cards to their members. Seniors organizations like the Federation of Senior Citizens Associations of the Philippines (FSCAP) and their regional counterparts around the country, RSCAPs, continue to issue and maintain their own IDs. Other senior citizens groups like the Veterans Federation of the Philippines (VFP) and the Association of Retired Postal Employees and Senior Citizens (ARPES) may also issue IDs for their own members. However, these IDs are only proof that they belong to said organization.

In the same manner, it has been clarified that it is not these membership cards which entitles a senior citizen to his/her rights and privileges. It is still the OSCA-issued senior citizens ID card which proves he/she is a senior citizen and which he/she must show to the business establishment to avail of discounts. In other words, senior citizens are not compelled to become members of senior citizens groups, or to procure said membership cards to avail of discount privileges. No Filipino elderly should be forced to become a member of a senior citizens association if he doesn’t want to, nor should he be threatened that he cannot avail of senior citizens benefits without said membership.   

Meanwhile, contrary to certain misrepresentations made in the field, there is currently no “national” or unified senior citizens ID card yet that will be used as a basis for disbursing the P500 monthly social pension for indigent senior citizens. For now the OSCA-issued IDs will be used since it maintains its value as a standard document proving one’s seniority, and is valid anywhere in the country. Eventually, once the intended beneficiaries have already been identified, prospective Social Pensioners will be issued a proper ID card for that purpose.