Lessons from the elderly

By Honor Blanco Cabie

RECENTLY, a childhood friend invited us to bend an ear while he and his maternal cousin, Florencio Blanco, who turned 98 only last January 16 would be on a video call.

An invitation we could not refuse, though hesitant were we to monitor their conversations.

After all, it is never in our character to tune in on discussions where we are well-nigh not essential participants.

But his bulletin board his maternal cousin shares some denominators with us – a strong family man, a musician, and a teacher – were immediate marbles we did not want to skip.

We learned he had just gone on a “sentimental journey” to the north of his province, buoyed up by the sights of the coastal Patapat viaduct and the Bangui windmills before returning home to Paoay, sight of the UN Heritage Lister San Agustin Catholic church, whose construction began in 1694 with architecture blending baroque, gothic, Chinese, and Javanese..

At that point, we had just read a report on the oldest known living woman, American-born Maria Branyas of Spain, aged 115 years, while the oldest living man is Juan Vicente Perez of Venezuela, aged 113 years.

We had the certitude we could pick up major life lessons from the man we learned later spent much of his prime years as a public school teacher, molding adolescent minds in Nueva Vizcaya.

That was after earning his elementary teacher’s certificate from the Far Eastern University in Manila, and later in his home province of Ilocos Norte where he retired as a district schools supervisor in Badoc, hometown of the Luna brothers.

He had in between doing lesson plans and administrative functions earned a master’s degree in education at the Northwestern College in Laoag to help him clamber up competitive the education ladder.

We watched our playmate’s cousin on the video call, and tried to collect every syllable he lobbed at his younger cousin – of the 51 cousins on their mother’s side, nine are left, with the biologically youngest, who would have been the 10th had he not been clawed by the coronavirus while being a frontliner in the US of A.

Beyond doubt, 98-year-old Florencio, who still does some carpentry work after taking in his maintenance medicines and vitamins, may have his hearing somehow impaired.

But he is still sharp-minded as perhaps in his younger years while preparing lesson plans for his different classes in Paoay and Batac before he got assigned in Badoc, also in the second district of Ilocos Norte.

The younger cousin walked him through the mountains of Dupax in Nueva Vizcaya and the unforgiving terrain of Pinili town, where warriors walked during the PhilippineAmerican war and the Second World War.

It was in Pinili where he was caught as a guerrilla against Japan’s occupation troops, fear beyond his demeanor, the same town where he was saved by maternal cousins in the bolomen regiment in the forested hill town, 457 kilometers north of Manila.

Verily, the elderly can be chests for words of wisdom.

The way they talked with each other, we felt in the older cousin his sense of pride for family, how life had been all these summers and how life must be enjoyed, the kind of courage in face of adversity as in the Second World War.

The man, who relishes soup as an indispensable part of his daily menu, has five children—two girls and three boys—all professionals, some retired and now enjoying their passion in life, the youngest still working as a clinical laboratory scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Regional Laboratories near Simi Valley in California.

The younger cousin, who obviously holds every leaf and branch of their family tree that has extended careers beyond the Philippine shores, appeared as much touched as the older as they talked about their roots and their family members.

Fortunately for the older cousin, who still receives his GSIS pension, he is not in the home for the aged, although he has two caregivers alternating to look after him, almost two years after his wife of nearly 77 years died in 2022, a month before she was to reach the century mark.

During the 70-minute video call, we learned a lot on how both cousins gave value to family roots.

If the conversations had run through the alphabet, three letters gleamed and gave us

A farmers’ group warned last month the government that more than 20 smugglers are now bringing in white and red onions, rice and frozen meat products.

“Let us please dismantle these groups and charge them with economic sabotage because this is non-bailable,” Ejercito had said.

As prices of some basic agricultural commodities, particularly onions, continue to catapult, Villar said a group of senators is keen to repeal the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016 and put in place a measure that would protect the farmers against unfair trade practices.

“We will repeal it (anti-smuggling law) and write a new law that would prohibit any move that

We note there supply of onions is abundant in the country but, as Villar said, “unscrupulous business operators have a hand in its scarcity in the market and its escalating prices.

“Traders and importers control the price of onions. They buy onions at very low prices and store them, which our farmers cannot do as they have no storage facility.”

The senator said one way to help the onion farmers is to provide a storage facility for their products, so they could sell them as they see fit.

The situation, she added, has already gotten out of hand that some onion farmers have failed to recover from mounting debts and losses.

As if that is not enough for righteous rage across the agricultural tracts, the Department of Agriculture is trying to figure out why the retail prices for eggs have soared to as high as P10 apiece.

Agriculture because there have been reported interceptions of smuggled agricultural products, but not a single person has been jailed.

I am also surprised at President Marcos Jr., as secretary of agriculture who knows full well the existence of the Mafia-like smuggling of agricultural products, since nobody thus far has been caught and jailed.

For instance, a DA official said eggs sold in Metro Manila markets are overpriced by at least P1.50 per piece.

Egg producers have been saying the farm gate price is stable, with Metro Manila and Occidental Mindoro sourcing their egg supply from Batangas.

One DA official said it seems the problem is in between as when eggs are transported to Mindoro, they only cause an additional 50 centavos; in Metro Manila, the added cost is P1.50, P2 to P2.50.

Agriculture Assistant Secretary and spokesman Kristine Evangelista has said the department is investigating after Philippine Egg Board Chairman Gregorio San Diego said farm gate price remains generally low, between P6.70 and P7.20 per piece.

Evangelista acknowledged the layers of traders are a major factor in pulling up retail prices of eggs and one of the solutions is to eliminate the layers of traders to minimize the increase in the retail price.”

Sans doubt, the egg producers should be able to bounce back.

And consumers should be excited with their eggs—scrambled, over easy, or sunny side up— when they are on their tables.

It’s getting “egg-citing,” as one good at swordplay, put forward.

I have often said, if this Mafia-like smuggling syndicate can easily smuggle agricultural products, they also can easily smuggle illegal drugs.

This perhaps explains the continued seizure of illegal drugs across the country. *** *** ***

I WONDER why the Commission on Human Rights has not yet called a possible violation of human rights with the frequency of photoaccompanied “Notice to the Public” ads appearing in newspapers. These notices warn readers the former employees have been terminated by the advertising/paying company and are no longer connected with the firm.

In which case, the same person whose photo appears should not transact business with the public, giving the impression such person had committed some malfeasance or some criminal activity.

Santa Banana, those notices to the public remind me so much of those posters we see in movies of criminals during the”Wild Wild West” in American movies of seeking out people “Wanted Dead or Alive” with either a $5000 or $1000 reward!

I know it is the right of companies or any organization to make the public aware of people who commit malfeasance or any criminal act so that people should not transact business with them.

But such is not the case in these public notices.

In my opinion, the published notice violates rights of people, with their photos placed in the pages of newspapers. My gulay, such notices give the impression the person who appeared in those notices had committed some criminal act. If they did, the right thing for companies or corpotrations to do is to sue them, not to have their photos plastered in newspaper pages. I believe such Notices to the Public violate human rights or the inherent right of a person to be presumed innocent unless proven otherwise.

This is why the Commission on Human Rights should do something because such violation of human rights could even include the newspaper where those Notices to the Public appear.

Being a lawyer, I cannot help be impressed those persons whose photos appear in the pages of newspapers committed some wrongdoing so much so that the public is warned not to transact business with them.

It’s like having posters of wanted criminals, which to me is a clear violation of human rights. *** *** ***

Senator Cynthia Villar bewails the rampant smuggling of food items like the pricey onions, sugar, rice, fish and meat products without a single smuggler going to jail.

I can understand the frustration of the senator as chairperson of the Senate Committee on

If the conversations had run through the alphabet, three letters gleamed and gave us an impression: he stands beside the letters H, B, and C – for honesty, benevolence, and considerateness

There have been reports that a Mafia-like syndicate operates in the smuggling of products much-needed in the market, and BBM has not gone after them since, /even though this constitutes a non-bailable offense of economic sabotage.

This continued smuggling of agricultural products has given the impression that Bongbong Marcos as agriculture secretary must be changed, Santa Banana!

I believe (the Davos trip) was all worth it, if only for the fact that BBM showed to the world that the country is now open for business an impression: he stands beside the letters H, B, and C—for honesty, benevolence, and considerateness.

I have been informed, and believe BBM knows this full well, that from the time the smuggled products are loaded in a shipment, the Mafia-like smuggling operation starts.

Usually , smuggled goods come from China and the Mafia-like operators know which ports the smuggled goods will be unloaded at.

Whether or not they pass through Customs and where they will be unloaded finally, are all under the control of these Mafia-like smugglers.

I have also been informed that when Customs people raid a warehouse, somewhere in Bulacan, Cavite and Batangas, it simply confirms that the bureau is part of the Mafia-like syndicate to give the impression that Customs people are up to their jobs and to fool the media.

What I am surprised about, Santa Banana, is that BBM is fully aware of the Mafia-like smuggling of agricultural products and yet has not done anything about it.

Senator Villar is right.

These constitute economic sabotage, a nonbailable offense.

It’s time BBM Marcos Jr. showed the people his zero-tolerance to the smuggling of agricultural products.

Mister President, stop once and for all the smuggling of agricultural products, if only to benefit local farmers and local producers.

What the people need is a display by the President of accountability behind the continued incidents of smuggling.

And he could laugh at jokes—never mind that some lateral incisors are not there anymore —dished out by the younger cousin, whose sense of humor appears a beaming notice board among the cousins, gone and still on the go.

We saw in his laughter his ability to sight read syncopated notes as when he played 1st clarinet with the FEU Band before the second world war, the kind of competence the younger cousin had when he was with The Mendiola Brass years later with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass beats.

While listening to the 98-year-old, we remembered Apoorva K S Hebbar, the environmental engineer from Karnataka, India,

At the continued House panel for the amendment of the 1987 Constitution, a former member of the Cory Constitution brought up the subject of political dynasties.

He said that it’s time political dynasties, which reportedly constitute about 80 percent of members of both the Senate and the House of Representatives, be banned as required by the charter.

The reason for this is self-interest.

I believe it is really self interest that’s behind all the political dynasties.

We can never expect Congress to enact a law implementing a ban on political dynasties.

But, I believe, considering all the pessimism that political dynasties will persist with the kind of politics we have, banning them will be next to impossible.

However, we can reduce political dynasties by limiting the number of those elected belonging to the same family to two, either re-elected or appointed.

This will effectively reduce the number of political dynasties.

This reduction of elected and appointed members belonging to the same family may at first be difficult to have.

But I believe it can be done with enough political will from our national leadership. Did I touch the nerves of members of political dynasties ? *** *** ***

It’s great news the Philippines exceeded the target of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent for our domestic growth rate for 2022.

Now, if only the country can sustain that growth for 2023, Santa Banana!

According to Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, the high GDP was the result of what he called “Revenge Spending,” with people spending so much on travels around the country and abroad, partying, going to beach resorts and shopping. I can believe that because so many of my friends and relatives and their families are having reunions following the reported easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

I myself am aware of such “Revenge Spending,” with the easing of health protocols and restrictions.

*** *** *** who wrote: “We should listen to our elders, not because they are always right, but because they have more experience in being wrong.”

There appears to be a debate on whether or not the attendance of BBM at the annual World Economic Forum in the resort city of Davos, Switzerland was imperative considering that Marcos Jr. was even accompanied by most of the country’s tycoons and taipans.

I believe it was all worth it, if only for the fact that BBM showed to the world that the country is now open for business.

Listen and learn from seniors. And why not?

Just living for so many years gives them the advantage of seeing the world longer and understanding people better. They offer priceless wisdom that can sustain the younger generation willing to listen to the long run – if they are keenly listening.

(HBC, an honor student in his college years, is a musician and used to teach literature, Asian Civilization and journalism in undergraduate and graduate levels before the pandemic. He was coach of the San Beda College of Arts and Sciences Debate Team and the FEU Oratorical and Debate Club)