“We journalists deserve much more than what we are getting paid or what the owners of media are giving us”
MY ETERNAL thanks to my opinion editor, Honor Blanco Cabie, for writing a column last Sept. 9 titled “Journalists Don’t Retire” about me on my 98th birthday yesterday.
Honor, my eternal thanks to you.
Santa Banana, I have been writing my column for the past seven decades and am not often written about. Dios ti agngina gayyem, Honor.
I am taking this occasion as I touch the 98th milestone to push for my last and final advocacy: for owners of print media and also owners of radio and television to establish and implement forthwith an insurance, retirement and pension plan for deserving journalists.
All those government officials and employees have their own retirement and pension plans when they reach the age of 60 which is administered by the GSIS (Government Service Insurance System).
Private employees likewise have their own retirement and pension plans administered by the SSS (Social Security System).
Many journalists in the Philippines do not receive retirement pay due to the absence of a formal company retirement plan.
Santa Banana, considering the fact that journalists in the Philippines have been labeled by journalists worldwide as “prone to killings and assassinations.” I’d like to add insurance to that list of retirement and pension pay.
As we all know, journalists have been massacred in the past.
I would like to endorse stongly again my last advocacy, in addition to the pursuit of truth and press freedom, a fund dedicated to journalists who, as my friend Honor wrote, “can do much more with their lives after 60, following the Will of God.”
Considering that print, radio and television media are also businesses, it would not cost much for the owners of these multi-varied news outlets to get together and perhaps decide it is high time journalists deserved an insurance and retirement pay because journalists are easily prone to threats against their lives and even killed in the process in the pursuit of truth and press freedom.
Journalists also deserve the recognition that they, just like any other profession, deserve to retire at a proper senior year and receive pensions.
Again, yes, I have not retired.
My problem is, now on my 98th summer in the post meridian sun , I am still writing not because I do not like to retire, but because I cannot receive a pension even if I retire.
Again, my gulay, journalists can do much more with their lives after 60, but I also believe deep in my heart, we journalists deserve much more than what we are getting paid or what the owners of media are giving us.
I’d like to quote some portions of the column of my good friend Honor about me.
“On Sept. 15, he will be 98, his Virgoan personality traits still gleaming: being diligent, practical, analytical, and meticulous, possessing a strong desire for order and perfection…
“The alumnus of Ateneo de Manila and the Philippine Law School used to be active with the Manila Overseas Press Club and 365 Club…but the global health emergency in 2020 took its toll on him, changed his lifestyle and, by his admission, made “me age faster.”
“His secret to aging with a healthy attitude?
“No secret at all. He just does what he can at his age. He does not try to do things he can no longer do. He just wants to maintain his health.”
Honor asked me what are my thoughts as I approach my 98 legend?
I said I am thankful to God that I have lived this long and still have my wife, the love of my life, here beside me. I wished for that in my younger days.
And the lessons in life that I would like the younger generations to emulate: To have a strong faith in God. To trust in Him in all things. There is no substitute for prayers and to submit oneself to God’s Will.
