Senior and PWD councils order probe into government-mandated discounts

The National Commission for Senior Citizens (NCSC) and the National Council For Disability Affairs (NCDA) ordered an investigation on Starbucks Philippines after it limited the use of Senior Citizen and Persons-with-Disability (PWD) Cards in their establishments.

According to a 24 Oras report by Maki Pulido on Tuesday, the coffee chain limited the discount of PWD, Senior Citizen, and other discount cards to only one drink and one pastry for every visit starting Monday.

“Susulatan po namin for them to correct na kung ano yung mali sa implementation ng batas,” said NCDA Project Evaluation Officer Myrla Sedenio.

The council reiterated that the law imposed no limit on what beneficiaries of the 20% discount and VAT exemption can order as long as the beneficiary will be eating the item.

“We are sending our lawyer and will make necessary action about this,” said NCSC chairperson Franklin Quijano.

Starbucks Philippines guaranteed that discounts will still be given for beneficiaries and apologized for the misunderstanding.

Meanwhile, the group Resto PH stated that the limitations of the law must be restricted as fake PWDs and Senior Citizen Cards have been made available or utilized by non-beneficiaries.

“I’ve had a customer where… as a requirement, a pilot should have a good vision and yet may PWD card for visual impairment. Very common where 8 people in a table all of them have PWD cards from mother, father, son, daughter, lola, baby who is a toddler,” said Resto PH Member Eric Teng.

“If it were a case where the 20 percent discount is chargeable against taxes then that’s not a problem, but we can’t. We can only claim less than 2 percent,” he added.

House Speaker Martin Romualdez has since ordered an investigation on both the possible abuse and limitation of the discounts.—Jiselle Casucian/RF, GMA Integrated News