
THE Supreme Court approved the grant of a 20% discount on interment services for senior citizens under Republic Act 7432 or the Senior Citizens Act as amended.
The SC issued the decision after a legal battle between the government and Pryce Corporation, Inc. over the inclusion of interment services in the senior citizen discount.
The Cagayan de Oro City Regional Trial Court initially ruled in favor of Pryce, stating that interment services are not covered by the discount since it was not explicitly mentioned in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of RA 7432.
The RTC held that the service of interment was not included as one of the benefits covered by the discount since the IRR only mentioned the services of purchase of casket or urn, embalming, hospital morgue, and transport of the body to the intended burial site.
The SC reversed that decision, saying that interment services are included in the discount as they are part of the burial process.
Interment services include, but not limited to, digging the land or memorial lot for the deceased person’s grave, concreting, and other services being done during the actual burial.
The Highest Court explained that the Senior Citizens Act was created to provide benefits to elderly citizens, and it would be unreasonable to exclude the interment services from that.