Valenzuela City has been chosen by the Coalition of Services of the Elderly, Inc. (COSE) to be the pilot area of a German government funded program in the country which will be implemented in the city for three years. 

COSE met with the 35 chapter presidents of the Alliance of Senior Citizens of Valenzuela City, Inc. (ASC – VCI) at the City Social Hall, recently to revisit and assess the present status of the federation and to discuss about the Strengthening Social Accountability in Philippine Social Protection Program. 

The program has two parts, social protection which includes social pension and Philhealth while the strengthening social accountability seeks to intensify the responsibility and capabilities of the older people’s organizations and local program implementers for the best execution of the benefits and projects concerning the elderly. 

Ms. Kathleen Valdez, Focal Person for Older Persons Program of the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO), said that the program aims to come-up with an operational manual, to have a sharing of ideas about the implementation of social pension program from different places, to have a driven mechanism and a citywide profiling. 

“Magkakaroon tayo ng mga orientation [at] leadership training para mai-advocate din na maging wider ang scope ng Social Pension Program. (We will conduct orientations and leadership trainings in order to widen the scope of the Social Pension Program),” she explained. 

Moreover, she also added that the Valenzuela City was the only city selected by COSE in National Capital Region (NCR) for the implementation of its projects benefiting the senior citizens due to the city’s existing programs for the elderly and recommendation from the Department of Social Welfare and Development – NCR (DSWD – NCR). 

COSE is a non-government organization (NGO) in the country which addresses the issues concerning the elderly like poverty, exclusion, and invisibility. 

In 2014, Valenzuela City was hailed as an Age-Friendly City by the COSE and DSWD for building age-friendly communities.