My father is 76 years old and is a dual citizen -- Filipino and Senior Citizen. He has been enjoying the perks of being an old man who has somehow served the country in his own little way as a public school teacher. He gets discounts for the medicines that he takes -- he has high blood pressure and, Parkinson's disease. He also had stroke recently. He also gets SC discounts whenever he would be confined in a hospital. When he eats at fast food chains, he also gets 20 % off.
Jollibee is one of his favorite fast food chains. When he could still go to Lucena City, we would always go to Jollibee uness I request other places. In the beginning he gets discounts for both our orders. Later on there was a rule that only the food that the SC card holder will eat will be given discount. We gladly followed because we felt it was fair.
When he could no longer go to malls, I would buy his favorite burger steak from Jollibee in out town (Gumaca, Quezon) once in a while. I usually bring his ID together with an authorization letter to get the SC discount. Jollibee accepts that like all the other restaurants (and drugstores for that matter). For several years we enjoyed this little favor that my old man gets. I'm grateful for this but I also know that this is not something that he owes Jollibee or any other restaurant giving discounts. It is a right that he rightfully deserves as a senior citizen of this country. It is not really that much if you really think about it but again, we are grateful.
Last week, I felt like my father deserves a treat so I asked his yaya to go to Jollibee to order burger steak. She brought with her my fathers SC ID and an authorization letter with his thumb mark -- he can't write anymore. When the yaya came back she had with her the burger steak but she said it's going to be the last time she could order for my father with just an authorization letter. The manager on duty was gracious enough to allow her to order that time but she said that next time, the SC himself must be there to order to get the discount. She said there was a memo issued regarding this.
I was really astonished by the said memo. Don't they know that there are a lot of senior citizens who either can't walk or are bedridden? They are SENIOR citizens, for crying out loud. Will we let them go through the trouble just to get a 20 % discount for a piece of burger steak? Some might say Jollibee is not forcing us to buy from them anyway so what are we complaining about. But you see, my point here is that these old people deserve this. They worked for it, paid taxes for many years.
The discount is really small. It wouldn't hurt our budget if we do not get it. The discount we'll get for a burger steak won't even allow us to buy half a kilo of rice. But whatever it is, I still feel that my father deserves it so he should get it. I feel that they should extend a little consideration to the SCs. Jollibee makes us, Filipinos, proud because it is our own. I just hope that Jollibee won't forget to also serve it's own people.
I wonder what the policies of other fast food chains are regarding this area? Do they also have the same rules or are they more considerate of the senior citizens? I saw a billboard saying McDonald's is coming soon to our place. Hmmmm....I will soon find out which values their senior customers better.
