Burial services covered by 20% discount – SC

SENIOR citizens or people 60 years old and above who died are covered by a 20 percent interment discount on funeral and burial services, the Supreme Court ruled.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Rodil Zalameda, the high court said that interment services are covered by the mandatory 20-percent discount as provided for under Republic Act (RA) 7432 or the “Senior Citizens Act,” as amended by RA 9257 and 9994.

It granted the petition for review on certiorari filed by the Republic of the Philippines and set aside the Jan. 18, 2018 and Oct. 22, 2018 Resolutions of Branch 17 of the Cagayan de Oro City Regional Trial Court (RTC) which favored Pryce Corp. Inc.

Pryce is a corporation engaged in the business of selling memorial lots and offering interment services. It contended that interment service is not among the services entitled to the 20 percent discount provided for under RA 7432 as amended.

The twin resolutions issued by the Cagayan de Oro RTC favored the position of Pryce that senior citizens are not entitled to a discount on interment services.

Stating that the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of RA 9994, or the “Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010,” only mentioned the services of purchase of a casket or urn, embalming, hospital morgue, and transport of the body to the intended burial site, the RTC held that the service of interment was not included as one of the benefits covered by the discount.

Specifically, the RTC said that the digging of land for the grave of the deceased, the concreting of the gravesite, and the other services done during the actual burial were not subject to the 20 percent Senior Citizens Act discount.

In reversing the RTC rulings, the high court stressed that the Senior Citizens Act is created to grant a bundle of benefits in favor of senior citizens, giving flesh to the declared policy of motivating senior citizens to contribute to nation-building and encouraging their families and communities to reaffirm the Filipino tradition of caring for the senior citizens.

The Supreme Court noted that the laws do not provide for an exact definition of the term “funeral and burial services,” and do not limit as well the scope of said services.

“Notably, the laws likewise do not limit the scope for the services falling under funeral and burial services,” it said.

The Court, as pointed out by Justice Amy C. Lazaro-Javier in her concurring opinion, added that it would be unreasonable to infer that Congress intended to differentiate between the deceased’s final solace for the purpose of granting the 20 percent discount absent a clear legislative intent to the contrary.