BOOKLET SCAM. Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Iloilo Consumer Protection Division Chief Ma. Dorita D. Chavez (center) clarifies the senior citizen discount booklet is issued by local government units through the Office of Senior Citizens Affairs and not through DTI. Senior citizens are warned about the scam, which offers discount booklets using the name of DTI during a press conference held in a restaurant in Iloilo City on Wednesday (June 19, 2019). (PNA photo by Perla G. Lena)
ILOILO CITY -- Senior citizens are warned to be wary of an organization that offers discount booklets using the name of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
Ma. Dorita D. Chavez, OIC chief of DTI Iloilo’s Consumer Protection Division, said on Wednesday the Senior Elderly Welfare Club of the Philippines (SCEW Club) allegedly sells discount booklets for PHP350 extending the claiming eligibility of senior citizen discounts to 40 to 59 years old.
“DTI has not issued any authority to this organization or club to sell booklets. To be clear, the booklets for senior citizens are not claimed at the DTI. It is being issued by local government units at their office of senior citizens affairs,” she said in a press conference held in one of the restaurants in the city.
She said that attached to the booklet that is being sold is the information that they are allowed to have a purchase of PHP650 per week.
“As of latest, our senior citizens are allowed PHP1,300 purchase per week and not PHP650,” she emphasized.
Nonetheless, she said that they haven’t received any information that the entity is already operating in Iloilo.
DTI Assistant Regional Director and concurrent director for Iloilo Ermelinda P. Pollentes said that SCEW is not registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “even if it alleges it has SEC registration”.
She added the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) has been sending correspondence to them but “they remain unsent as its officers’ contact numbers cannot be located”.
“So the SCEW is really a scam,” she declared.
She added that in Manila there are establishments that complained after they encountered customers using unofficial senior citizen cards that were distributed by the SCEW.
The senior citizen ID card applicant must be 60 years of age or above and a bonafide resident of the Philippines. (PNA)
