WHILE SOME people do everything in their power to defy ageing by resorting to a variety of medical procedures to enhance their looks and hide the obvious and inevitable signs of a natural phenomenon, there are those who look forward to it, celebrate and embrace it fully and proudly.
I think I was in my late 30s when one of my gay friends suggested that I dye my hair not to hide the gray hairs that were slowly coming out of nowhere. I had jet black hair with a slightly darker skin tone, so my friend finally convinced me to have light brown hair to create an illusion of a lighter skin tone on my face and yes, to make me look a few years younger than my actual age.
For years, that became a bi-monthly routine for me because I noticed that the more I dyed my hair, the more gray hairs came out one after another. I was in my mid-40s when I finally decided to stop dyeing my hair. I suddenly had this urge to sport the salt-and-pepper look ala Richard Gere or if I may say, ala Aurora Pijuan, as if announcing to the world that I was ready for old age and that I was already looking forward to enjoying my senior citizen’s special privilege in restaurants and other food establishments and of course, in my friendly neighborhood drugstore.
Two years ago when my Ate Lely retired from the government agency where she spent more than half of her life, almost everyone thought that she would just stay home, enjoy her retirement benefits and begin to live a stress-free life, away from the daily grind she was used to. But our family was not at all surprised when she became busy more than ever with the things she was always passionate about. With so much freedom in her hands, she found both the time and the reason to be more active in pursuing the things she had started early on. She remains an active and committed figure in the activities of the archdiocese and our parish where she has found the steady support of long-time friends-turned family.
In 2018, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies conducted a study and reported that the Philippines would be an aging population by 2032. By this time, at least seven percent of the country’s population will be 65 years and older. Consequently, more Filipinos will depend on their pension benefits, whether through private or public pension systems.
I think more than the gray hair, wrinkled face and sagging skin that we can never avoid as we grow older, we should be more concerned about how the government takes concrete steps and long-term action in improving the current state in the country’s pension systems.
Here is the sad truth. There is nothing much to be desired as far as the country’s retirement systems are concerned. The Philippines has the second worst retirement income system among 44 nations, according to the Mercer CFA Institution Global Pension Index. Currently, the Social Security System provides monthly pension of approximately P5,000–P18,000 ($90–$320) to retirees. On the other hand, the maximum monthly pension provided by the Government Service Insurance System for those 57 years old and above is 80% of the average monthly salary received during the last three years immediately preceding retirement. Compare this amount to the steadily increasing cost of living, expected medical costs and other lifestyle expenses; the pension provided by the state is undoubtedly not enough.
Quite understandably this is a genuine and valid concern for retirees, the same reality that I also think about every now and then as I look forward to my own retirement five years from now. But I do not let my fears of the unknown get the best of me; instead I already envision myself living a productive and fulfilling retirement years.
So, five years from now, I would be still active in the parish as a member of the music ministry, one activity that has kept me grounded the past several years. I would probably be doing consultancy work for some private schools, and still engaging myself in the academe as a resource speaker or facilitator in some workshop or training to capacitate both administrators and teachers. I would be on my way publishing my own book, an idea suggested by my editor, Tata Bong Lacson, as early as May 2023 and an undertaking that I would definitely start two years from now. No, I would never enter politics. I have turned down offers and invitations to run for public office before, I will continue to do so in the future. But I do not mind seeing myself lead our town’s senior citizens so we can work together for more representation and more programs that would benefit us. And yes, I would travel more and continue to write my column that has allowed me to connect with readers from all over the globe. To turn 60, to retire and to enjoy life to the fullest. C’est la vie!
