A formerly homeless centenarian who has been living away from her children received on Tuesday a P100,000 cash gift from Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada.
Estrada personally handed the check to Maria Pancho, the 31st centenarian in Manila to receive the P100,000 gift under the program.
“I wish Lola Maria more years of happy and healthy life,” Estrada said, as he welcomed the centenarian in his City Hall office.
Estrada said Lola Maria and all the other 100-year-old Manileños deserve such a simple token from the city government for being the nation’s role models, having led long, distinguished, healthy, and disciplined lives.
Pancho was born on Nov. 15, 1916, the eldest in a brood of seven. A widow, she has six children, all of whom now have their own families in their hometown in Bicol.
She had been roaming around the city in a wooden cart until a concerned resident in Binondo took her in. She earns a living by being a community “hilot” (massage therapist).
“I only eat vegetables and fish,” Pancho said, when asked how she made it to 100 in good physical condition.
She could not contain her excitement when she met Estrada, her long-time movie idol.
Asked what she would do with the money, Pancho said she will deposit it in a bank.
Estrada started the P100,000 award program in March 2016 as his special gift to bonafide elderly residents who have reached the age of 100.
“Living to a hundred years old, about three decades past the life expectancy, is extremely rare today,” the mayor said, citing a report from the World Health Organization that shows life expectancy in the Philippines is 65.4 for men and 72.5 for women.
The P100,000 cash gift program has been authorized by Ordinance No. 8483 approved by Estrada on March 17, 2016.
Under the ordinance, authored by then-councilor and now 3rd District Rep. Yul Servo, every living centenarian shall, within 30 days from his or her 100th birthday, receive a cash gift of P100,000 from the city government.
Centenarians who reached the age of 100 prior to the passage of the ordinance will also receive the cash gift, provided they are residents of Manila for at last one year.
With his motto “Bata’t matanda, alaga sa Maynila,” Estrada said senior citizens occupy a special place in his heart — because his mother, Doña Mary Ejercito, died on January 13, 2009 at the age of 103.
Centenarians also receive P10,000 each during the yearly celebration of Araw ng Maynila on June 24.
Senior citizens in Manila, which number around 130,000, are entitled to free medical checkups, hospitalization, medicines and other healthcare services from the six city-run public hospitals and 59 community health centers. They also receive P500 cash gift on their birthdays.
Manila’s elderly can also watch movies for free on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays in any movie house in the city.