Please sign it, Ma’am

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

We welcome President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on her expected visit to Bacolod City today. We are happy that, despite her very rigorous schedule in Manila, she has taken the time to again honor our city with this visit.

Like all of her constituents in our city and province, we hope that our President will have some good news for us today. As she is already probably aware, among the sectors that are expecting to hear some beneficial announcements from her are the senior citizens, who have been titillated lately by the news that both the House of Representatives and the Senate have already passed the bill that would grant them the real benefits of the much appreciated Senior Citizens law.

The law had been welcomed heartily by the country’s aging population because they believed it would lighten their burdens as far as medication, food, health care, and other necessities were concerned. It was therefore a great disappointment for them when they found out that the much-ballyhooed 20 percent discount was not what it seemed, because the imposition of the 12 percent expanded value-added tax, or EVAT, had actually pared it down to just eight percent.

The two Houses of Congress have attempted to correct this by passing the amended Senior Citizens law, which would remove the EVAT of 12 percent, and enable them to enjoy the entire 20 percent promised by the original law.

That is why recent reports that Malacañang does not seem inclined to have the bill enacted into law was very disturbing to the senior citizenry. But their hopes were again revived with the latest reports that the President is ready to sign it and only waiting for its transmission by Congress. And, for all we know now, she may already have done the deed, and signed it before coming here.

If not, we echo the voice of the country’s seniors: Please sign it, Madame President! Now na!*