CEDAW/C/PHI/5-6 c. The Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2003 (Republic Act 9257) grants additional benefits and privileges to senior citizens amending Republic Act 7432. The additional benefits and privileges include discounts from establishments, income tax exemption, medical and dental privileges in government facilities and in private facilities, among others. d. Pending in the House of Representatives is House Bill No. 1010 which provides for the establishment and maintenance of lactation stations (breastfeeding) in public places. 487. The social welfare department has been expanding its day care center program. In Department Order No. 11, series of 2000, it set the minimum standards and guidelines to ensure quality in the delivery of day care service through the accreditation of day care workers and centers. It has also begun testing strategies for integrating autistic children into the regular day care services program. The Integrated Care Center Services for Senior Citizens and Children enables the children attending the regular day care session to have older persons as resource persons to talk about values. A related program for the elderly that is being pilot tested in three regions, the “Neighborhood Support Services for Older Persons” recognizes the forces affecting the capacity of the family to support their older members and builds the capabilities of potential caregivers within the family and the community. This develops options of burden sharing. In a slightly different vein, its interagency project, the Sagip Kalinga, addresses the problem of the increasing mendicancy in metropolitan areas, by taking away vagrants, mendicants, children and adults who frequent and have taken shelter on the street from the hazards of the street life and provide them with appropriate social care. 488. The “Loren for Military Dependents” is a program that seeks to assist wives and daughters of military officers and enlisted men. Launched in July 2002 and implemented in coordination with the Armed Forces of the Philippines and TESDA, the program provides the beneficiaries training at TESDA to enable them to undertake income livelihood projects. The program is being implemented in three units of the Armed Forces from the National Capital Region, two in Luzon and one each in Visayas and Mindanao. So far, the program has benefited at least 250 women and graduated 150 in entrepreneurship courses at the TESDA Women’s Center. Financial credit and technical assistance 489. Also noted in Article 11, RA 7882 set up the Development Bank of the Philippines and the Land Bank of the Philippines as conduit banks for the loan program. Loans were granted for businesses in agriculture and farm production, agro-processing, general trading, housing and construction, land and sea transport, manufacturing and services. From 1998 to 2001, an increasing number of women availed themselves of loans (see Annex Table B13.1). However, government institutions involved in the project expressed some reservations about the law’s long-term benefits. For one, the women would need large loans that command higher market interest rates to expand their business. Unless they are willing to pay the higher rate, they would find it hard to get the required capital to graduate into larger-scale business beyond the micro or cottage level. To most government financial institutions, 12 percent interest is too low to be cost effective. 133