IBA, Zambales—The senior citizens of Zambales never had it this good. Each month, they congregate in some barangay plaza for a joint birthday celebration, toast each other to long life and better health, partake of free food and drinks, courtesy of the local government, and bond and party like the old times.
“It’s fun, and it makes you feel younger,” said Mercedita Elad of Masinloc town, as the seniors waltzed and cha-cha’d to near exhaustion during a recent birthday bash.
“Most of all, we get to celebrate with friends—not alone in the house—and for free,” Masinloc Senior Citizens Federation Chairman Melody Bautista added.
The monthly birthday parties start with a morning merienda, followed by a program where the “golden girls and boys” participate in song and dance presentations. Then came the recognition of the celebrators and awarding of cash gifts to centenarians.
Lunch is packed food most of the time—unless the local government units prepared a more sumptuous fare—but the seniors eat away happily, some rewrapping untouched food to be brought home to their apos.
There’s a band to sing songs and play danceable music, and the rest of the afternoon is devoted to games, chats and more dancing.
The parties have been going on each month since June last year, when Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. challenged Masinloc officials and the town’s Federation of Senior Citizens to start a monthly get-together to celebrate the birthdays of local seniors. The practice has caught on and spread to all the 13 towns in Zambales.
At that time, the provincial government has been putting up Senior Citizens buildings in each town to house the offices of the local senior-citizen associations so the birthday project jelled with Ebdane’s elderly-welfare program.
Recently, the governor also announced another project for the elderly: a Senior Citizens Ward already being constructed at the provincial hospital here in Iba.
Ebdane, himself a senior citizen at 66, said the Senior Citizens buildings, the birthday celebrations and the Senior Citizens Ward are but token recognition of the elderly for their contributions to the community.
“They have earned the right to be respected because this province, as well as the residents of local communities, won’t be here and won’t be like this today were it not for them,” Ebdane said.
The Governor’s Office said there are about 45,000 registered senior citizens in the province of Zambales, with 16 of them already 100 years or older.
The oldest living centenarians here are Julieta Reyno of Cabangan town, born on November 9, 1907; Cristina Valderrama, from Palauig town, born on October 10, 1912; and Virginia Torres, also of Palauig, born on October 12, 1913.
Some of the governor’s staff keep track of the centenarians, visiting the already infirm and giving them their monthly allowance of P2,000 from Ebdane, as well as needed medicine.
The other week, during the joint birthday celebration for the “birthday boys and girls” from the towns of Palauig, Iba and Botolan, Ebdane also handed out a P10,000 cash gift to Primitiva Merto, who turned 100 this month. The P10,000 gift is given to all senior citizens reaching the ripe age of 100.
With the purpose of recognizing the elders’ role in community development, the Zambales provincial government is paying back with projects to make the locals’ golden years more comfortable and rewarding.
The Senior Citizens offices, for example, each have a lounge with sofa set, television and DVD player, and refrigerator. The municipal governments, the caretakers of the buildings, are also encouraged to supply coffee and biscuits for the consumption of the seniors who visit and meet at the offices.
Provincial Engineer Domingo Mariano said the provincial government has already completed construction of Senior Citizen offices in all the 13 towns of Zambales, the latest of which is in Subic. The iconic buildings are done in the same style and are all swathed in blue, red and white.
Each of two-story structures that house the Senior Citizens office has the seniors on the lower floor, and the office of Barangay Health Workers on the upper level. The governor said half in jest that such an arrangement would ensure the seniors would always have ready medical assistance nearby.
“We’ve put up these offices, not only because we want a comfortable place for officials of the seniors federation, but more so because we know the seniors need their own place, their own social network,” Ebdane explained.
“These offices give them a base for their activities and projects, which make them even more productive in their golden years,” he added.
Aside from helping establish their social base, the government of Zambales also makes sure the elders get needed medical care.
Ebdane said that, since its installation in 2010, his administration has continuously provided free medical and dental care for the elderly, especially those living in remote villages, and given away financial assistance to needy seniors.
The government has also given away wheel chairs to senior citizens who can no longer walk, but still attend the birthday celebrations.
The Senior Citizens Ward project, which Ebdane also hopes to put up in the two other district hospitals in the province, is the icing in the government’s elderly-care program.
Ebdane said the elderly ward at the Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Hospital will have four beds at the isolation room and six beds each for the male and female wards. All rooms would have their own toilet and bath.
With a construction budget of P9.3 million, the special ward will also have its own nurses’ station and a spacious multifunction receiving area. The project is scheduled for completion in October.
Officials of the senior citizens’ federations have hailed the governor’s building program as a huge contribution for the welfare of the elderly.
Lea Mayormita, president of the Provincial Federation of Senior Citizens of Zambales, said the seniors have benefitted a lot from the governor’s program for the elderly.
“We can never thank Gov. Ebdane enough for all these things he has given us,” Mayormita said during the inauguration of another Senior Citizens building recently.
“We are empowered, and we feel very happy with what you do,” she told the governor.
Ebdane said he placed emphasis to elderly welfare in the province’s development program because of an experience during his stint as chief of the Philippine National Police.
“At that time, we were building some training facilities at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig, and we named some of the buildings and streets after some retired officers, who we invited during the inauguration,” Ebdane recalled.
“And you know what these battle-scarred former tough guys did when they saw our tribute? They cried. And they cried because they were overwhelmed upon realizing that they have not been forgotten, that we remembered what they did during their prime,” he added.
“This is also what we are trying to do here in Zambales: to give our elders their due, to remember the role they have in our lives and to show them that we have not forgotten,” he said.
Image credits: Henry Empeño