An elderly on the elderly

By Herbert Vego

 

OVER coffee at Hotel del Rio the other day, I confided to my friend Rodolfo an “embarrassing” incident. It was about my chance meeting with a former media colleague whose name I could not mention due to lapse of memory.

“Only after we had parted did Montessa’s name flash in my memory,” I regretfully told Rod. “Sign of old age? I am 70.”

“It’s okay,” the younger Rod appeased me. “You have accumulated so much information that it takes time to recover a memory.”

I nodded laughing and sang a line from an old song where an old dad was telling his young son, “Look at me, I am old but I’m happy.”

In the Philippine setting, why not? One of the blessings that Filipino senior citizens enjoy is the privilege of paying less for important things, especially food and medicine.

Let me share added thoughts on us the elderly.

Old people need not be discarded. Old but healthy men reflect the deathless character and pricelessness – just like the old masters’ paintings, diamonds, old silverware, old furniture, old coins, old books, aged wine and vintage cars. Greece and Egypt thrive because of tourists who flock to see the ruins of past civilizations.

We don’t usually lament the loss of a new thing; but we cry over the breakage of an antique plate or flower base.

There are old books that are so packed with wisdom that they keep their authors alive in our hearts. Among them are the Bible and the immortal writings of old Greek philosophers like Plato, Aristotle and Socrates.

“Old” is an old word with a “young” undertone, derived from an Indo-European root that means “to nourish.” No wonder, in asking a child for his age, we say, “How old are you?”

Unfortunately, as against the “new,” “fresh,” and “young,” the “old” narrows its meaning to “stale,” “worn” and “dying.”

It is often only in old age that we cherish the memories of our youth. We love to look at our old pictures and share with the young the memories of the “good old days when we were young.” How we regret not having preserved most of our old photographs!

In the final analysis, however, whether young or old, dust we are and to dust, we shall return. There could be no adventure without the transition from youth to adulthood. In fact, the young ones beg of us young once to tell them what adventures we have gone through.

After reading a book on Benjamin Franklin – whose picture appears on all US $100 bill bills – I drew inspiration from his humble childhood. Born to very poor parents, he worked hard and very patiently to be somebody. He was already 81 in 1787 when he was elected to the Constitutional Convention that would frame the Constitution of the newly-created United States of America.

Wow, I still have 11 more years to catch up with Franklin. His biography buoyed my spirit. Like Franklin, I still write for a living in my senior years.

Time could be destructive, but it could toughen us as well. Expertise in a vocation or profession requires time. The old are called “old” not only because of aging but because of the contributions they have made to modern times.

The people who fear old age are those who think of it as a gateway to the graveyard. But lest we forget, death does not choose between the old and the young.

As a popular saying goes, “In the end, it’s not the years in our life, but the life in our years that count!”

Incidentally, the last time I drank beer with a fellow senior citizen, he sang a Rico Puno song, “May bukas pa…”

Yes, there is still tomorrow for us.

 

-oOo-

 

We have yet to hear an update on the intention of two party-list congressmen, Sonny Lagon (Ako Bisaya) and Presley De Jesus (PHILRECA), to initiate a congressional investigation on the “inefficiency” of MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) under House Resolution No. 785.

Is it true that their colleagues have dissuaded them from pushing through with it?

Should it push through, it would only support MORE Power’s claim that PECO, as the previous distribution utility in Iloilo City, had “bequeathed” to the new player bulok or worn-out substations that are badly in need of preventive maintenance and upgrading.

Should the House grant Lagon’s probe call, it would only succeed in retracing the circumstances that had preceded disapproval of PECO’s application for renewal of franchise that expired on January 19, 2019.

In fact, the House committee on legislative franchises disapproved its application in view of Iloilo City’s Sangguniang Panglunsod’s resolution detailing individual complaints against PECO over erroneous billings, poor customer service, overcharging, fire-prone leaning poles, “spaghetti” wirings, wrong readings and power pilferage.

PECO had also not fully complied with the order of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to refund the customers around P631 million in overbillings.

The amount must have ballooned further because of bill deposits that should have been refunded following the expiration of its franchise.

If it’s any consolation, the law (RA 11212) awarding the new distribution franchise to MORE Power requires it to pay PECO a “just compensation” of almost P482 million.

But then, basi kulang pa ina inugbayad sa refund?