Magic store’s discrimination policy vs. elderly

By Jesus A. Garcia, Jr.

SORRY my dear readers but my article this week is not about sports. Honestly, this is my first time to digress since I started writing in Sunday PUNCH for more than 15 years.

I want to share here a personal ordeal that I suffered last September 1 in my town (Mangaldan) at the Magic store.  I was prevented by the store’s security guard (with last name Antonio printed in his uniform) from entering. Reason? I am a senior citizen! He said, the store’s policy is not to allow senior citizens inside even to buy some essential goods for my daily needs.

Our province is already under MGCQ (Modified General Community Quarantine) and IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force that clearly announced that senior citizens are entitled to go out at any time to buy essential items. The security guard’s claim left me puzzled and helpless.  So, I left and proceeded to Nepo Mall in nearby Dagupan City for the same purpose, and in contrast, I was quickly allowed by the security guard to enter the mall after filling up the form (for contact-tracing) and was allowed to buy all the stuff for my daily consumption without question. After accomplishing my shopping, I went back to Mangaldan Magic store in the afternoon the same day purposely to talk to the store’s manager and the store’s chief security guard to get an explanation WHY senior citizens are being discriminated against in their store. I showed them a copy from the DILG press release dated August 27 to prove their policy wrong and a violation of IATF guideline.

It was obvious to me that they are not  Mangaldañon hombres, so I introduced myself,  being born in Barangay Buenlag, Mangaldan, raised and educated in the town, brought multiple honors to this beloved town as a three-time cycling champion of Philippine national Tours being a professional cyclist and a brother-in-law of the late Dagupan City Mayor Alipio Fernandez, Jr. My intention here was not to brag about my credentials, but to let them know that I’m not a stranger in Mangaldan but a bonafide resident of the town to this day after coming from Uncle Sam’s land, that I’ve been a loyal customer of their store. I told them also that I know their boss, the current head of Dagupan City Brian Lim, (although I’m not close to him like I was to his father, ex-Mayor Benjie Lim, a good friend).

Strangely, the boyish looking store manager never said any word and was tight-lipped until I left his office. He didn’t bother to explain the Magic’s policy so I began to wonder if he was listening at all to his customer’s complaint. It was frustrating dealing with Mangaldan Magic!

What Magic is doing is a clear violation of DILG Memorandum Circular (MC) 2020-110 dated August
16 signed by Secretary Eduardo M. Año otherwise known as the “Rule of Mobility of Older Persons in Quarantine Situations as Prescribed by the IATF-MEID.”  It stated: “All LGUs, down to the barangay level, implementing modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), general community quarantine (GCQ) and modified GCQ pursuant to the IATF-EID Omnibus Guidelines shall not implement 24/7 lockdown on older persons in their homes.

DILG Undersecretary and Spokesperson Jonathan Malaya also added that under the provision of the IATF-MEID Omnibus Guidelines that senior citizens, while strongly encouraged to stay home during the global pandemic, may go out of their residences and enter commercial establishments if their purpose is to access essential goods and services and for work in permitted industries including those in the informal setting in all areas under the community quarantine.

Yes, what they are doing is also against the law of God. Read the Quote of the Week below.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, with all purity. 1 TIMOTHY 5: 1-2

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