Elsietampong's Blog

This year’s activities of the Senior Citizens’ Association of Laging Handa (SCALA) surpassed everyone’s expectations of what the Seniors can do. Spearheaded by the the first Chairman of SCALA Ding Villa, the association successfully registered at the Securities and Exchange Commission by April 15, 2010. On May 11, 2010, the First Bingo-Lunch-Dance was held at the Eco Park at the La Mesa Dam. It was sponsored by the Barangay Laging Handa and held jointly with the Barangay Annual Staff Outing. Soon after, on July 31, 2010, a Second Bingo-Dinner-Dance affair was held at the Casa Pura, sponsored again by the Barangay and the Kagawad for Senior Affairs, Mrs. Binggay Montilla. This December 10, the group held their Third Bingo-Dinner-Dance at the Barangay Basketball Court. The Bingo started at 4:45 p.m., with many of the Seniors showing up before the published time of 4 p.m.

Shown above is the indefatigable Treasurer, Flory SyChangco with his Reception Committee comprised of SCALA Directors Lydia Alvarez, and Fidel Paat Jr.

The attendance was very good, with over 50 people in attendance. Flory announced that SCALA General Membership was now 143 people, up from the 132 people before the Affair.

Tito Pepe, as former Barangay Chairman, Actor and Bingo Master Pepe Pimentel has always been fondly called, wholeheartedly and cheerfully did the Bingo, as he did with other two Bingo affairs. The crowd enjoyed his popular jokes that went with the Bingo numbers. Here he is happily posing with Cora Guiang, the winner of the P1,000 Dinner Voucher from Alfredo’s Steak and Bar Restaurant.

Pictured to the left were Marilyn and Nick Jorge, Silvino Abacan and Joe Bugayong. Nick Jorge was a famous basketball player during the prime of his youth. Now he runs a basketball school to pass on his skills to the youth! On the right are Chinni Carpio, Dr. Nenita Co, Martha Manzana and their friends.

Can you see that it was still broad daylight when we started this Affair? Here is Marina and her group that got in early. They were the last to leave, and I know because my last picture was of them leaving with big smiles on their faces and presents in their hands! The other group– “Ninfa and the Dancers”– I call them, they are the ones who bring their own Dance Instructor to make sure that none of them are wall flowers the whole night. These women are very quiet. When you see them walking in the streets on a normal day, they walk slowly with stooped backs. But once they get on the dance floor — all hell breaks loose!

I put this picture in so that I could show how the big the crowd was and the decor the Barangay basketball court had that night. Hey, this just half of the whole crowd! It amazes me no end of how everyone could get so wrapped up with the Bingo game. The bingo players’ eyes are glued to the Bingo card as if their life depended on it. Thank God that this was my third Bingo game for the Seniors, and if you want to be strict about it, the first time I had ever organized activities for the elderly. For the first Bingo game, I got money from some of the directors, and I bought canned goods like sardines, some of which I wouldn’t dare give away any more for the third Bingo night. Since I realized that I had to do most of the solicitation of prizes, I decided to use my skills as a former fund raiser and send letters to all the business establishment in the Barangay.

Pictured left wearing a red dress is the current Chairman of the Senior Association. Her name is Nita Nantes. She is 82 years old, and lives in a group of town homes that she owns. She confessed to me that she built these town homes in 1976 with just a prayer and the backing of the bank who gave her a loan. Nita has been a recipient of “Mother of the Year” for Quezon City and several papal awards for her religious and pious life. One of her six children is a priest. He celebrates Mass in her house every Sunday. But Nita walks slowly to Church every day to hear Mass.

On the right, the group is shown doing a line dancing number. There were not enough dance instructors to go around, and everyone wanted to dance. There were also not enough men to dance with. So– we did a few numbers of line dances.

This lady pictured on the right surprised me with her very dance-ballroom-y dress and her high spiked heels!!! She is the type of “manang” you would never think to be the “belle of the ball”.

The whole night was filled with fun and dancing. The Seniors were extremely delighted with the numerous prizes that I was able to solicit from the many restaurants and establishments that dot the periphery of the Barangay. Most of them were gift vouchers for dinners. They came from the following: Alfredo’s Steak House, Cercchio’s Bar and Restaurant, Chilli’s Mexican Restaurant, Estrel’s Cakes, Jollibee’s Restaurant, Little Asia Restaurant, Max Fried Chicken, Red Crab Seafood Restaurant, Romulo’s Bar & Restaurant, Sushi-ya’s Restaurant, Wheatberry’s Restaurant, Yam Cha’s Restaurant. Non-food prizes came from Urban Escape Spa (body massage), Councilor Marvin Rillo (P5,000); Councilor Raquel Malanguen (a desk fan). Cash gifts came from some of the directors that we used to pay for our expenses.

I made a Newsletter to report on this, and when the Seniors opened the door to receive it, their first question was, “When is the next one?”

Ralph decided we couldn’t turn our backs on the Street Sweepers, the Segregators of Trash, and the Street Police, not since Ralph just left his work end of November. I looked at the passbook to check how much we could spare to give them. We decided to give those who segregated trash P500 each, the rest P1,000 each.

Then, some people sent presents to Ralph and myself. One person sent a 12-inch ensaymada–“the best in the world”, it said. Then another one sent something still wrapped. I decided, that since the last office party was so happy because of the raffle prizes, I would throw in some raffle presents during the party. Ralph timed the party so we had the trash segregators at 3:30 p.m., the Street Sweepers at 4:30 p.m. and the Barangay Police at 5:30 p.m. We served them sandwiches and iced tea. I looked at my fridge: there was a box of chocolates and a box of chocolate cookies. I threw them into my pile of raffle prizes, together with the huge ensaymada. Then I sent Tony to buy more prizes from the grocery store.

I was looking at my cache of pictures. None for the segregators of trash. They were not a photogenic lot. Skinny, toothless men, who had scrubbed for the party, but who still reminded one of those homeless people in Central Park. Last year, they remembered of the nice meal we served them, and of the prizes they got. One man said he got rice, plastic basins, groceries. I didn’t apologize for this year’s meager meal and hardly any prizes. Later, Ralph told the third group that he was just sharing with them whatever little money he got from his “performance bonus,” (P10T), cash gifts from the Mayor (P5T) and other politicians (P2T). We just wanted to tell them that we appreciated their work for the barangay.

The next group was the Street Sweepers. They all put on their green uniform over their clothes. The shirt said “Bilis Walis”, meaning “Fast Sweepers.” They got the usual sandwiches and tea. They came to sing carols.
The new Barangay Captain brought his guitar to accompany the Street Sweepers. When I saw them sweating, I told them to take off their uniform and just use their street clothes. When it came to the portion where they got their P1,000, each of them hugged and kissed Ralph. This was the group that had the most fun, mostly from giggling from the kiss.

I was able to give away the puzzle mat, the kiddie sofa, and Barbie doll I bought for the accountants’ daughters when they came with their mothers on weekends. many years ago. Tony had already come so we distributed some cans of biscuits and groceries.

The Barangay Police group came last. I don’t really know their official name. I know that they number around 30, 15 on each 12-hour shift. They are trained to patrol the streets. Each of them have walkie-talkies and handcuffs. No guns. There is a “motor patrol” that goes around to go around the barangay streets 24 hours a day. There is a desk officer who controls all their movements. These “police” do not earn minimum wage even if they work hard. But they are happy to do work, in the light of so much unemployment.

We had the same format– serve drinks, then sing some Christmas carols. This is how the camera caught them, singing their carols. Then give them their cash gift. This time, I had more prizes– boxes of biscuits, canned goods.

These staff are not considered “the less fortunate” of society, because they have work that will feed their families. The “waste segregators” are fortunate, because they are able to recycle plastics and iron that cannot be used anymore, and get some money from it. Their income is very little, but they are still more fortunate than those who have nothing at all.

After this year, hopefully, Ralph and I can fade into the sunset and stop these parties. Meanwhile, Ralph has to scrub his face doubly hard, after getting kissed by 24 women.

Merry Christmas 2010!!!

Fiesta Time During Elections

It was a great time for the people to have these elections. Many people were employed to distribute pamphlets, many restaurants were booked to host “mitin de avances“. Companies were set up to print tarpaulins, signages, leaflets. Of course, we know about people being bribed to vote for their candidates. The going rate in Pangasinan was P300. The going rate in Manila was higher, P500 per person, and P10,000 per family for the really desperate candidate.

Since Husband was a local politician, I found ourselves being the recipient of many campaign posters. Initially, I felt aversion to putting them up. But as my emotions started to favor one candidate over another, I decided to throw in the towel and plaster the posters up. They found spaces in the gates of the buildings we were renting out. (I did ask the Building Managers to ask permission from the tenants. After all, they lived there.) Then at both sides of the van. Hey! putting up the poster at the side of the van filtered out the sun light. So now, I am going to need to put another material once I need to put away the posters. Perhaps I can have the picture of my grandchildren made and these would be nice posters. The grand children’s pictures are already posted in the buildings. Why not in my van? Fortunately, mine are such good looking grand children!!! As my mother would say, “improvement of the race!” specially when our children married people of another race.

The streets were filled with buntings of the candidates. If you didn’t know better, these were buntings for fiestas. So it brought a lot of cheer to the streets. Above is the picture of one such street in Marikina.

Wearing Yellow

As I said, Husband works for the lowest political level, the Barangay. He was roped in in the campaign. He would wear a yellow blazer/jacket over a yellow t-shirt. He would disappear after a quick dinner, and he would sit with the candidates on the stage platforms set up for the campaign. Husband is a cerebral guy. He doesn’t go for the usual activities that local officials go for– wine, women and song. He prefers to go for esoteric things like planning for development, and during this time, he fought to bring Voter’s education to the masses. He told the Mayor, “You got to fund my Voter’s Education project. How can you win, when the voters will not know how to vote for you?” This year, the country went into digital voting, so it was necessary to teach people how to vote with these new machines. That got the Mayor’s ear, and Husband focused on this aspect of the election. Later, other people and groups caught on to the importance of Voter’s Education, and more classes were organized.

It was election day today, and Husband woke up at 5:30 a.m. He had to bring breakfast to the poll watchers. Yesterday, Sunday, I had to call my plumber and electrician from their Sunday rest. Husband saw that the School where the voting was going to place didn’t have a flush toilet, and no water. So the plumber had to install connections. Husband bought two pails, one for the men’s room, and the other for the ladies’ room. One lady came up to complain that her partner who had to man the other toilet didn’t show up, so she was busy flushing both toilets with the pails. And the bell that would sound the start and end of the elections was not connected. So the electrician had to connect that.

It took me 1 1/2 hour to vote. The lines were long because there were not enough teachers to do the signing, putting of thumb mark to signify finishing the voting, etc.

After I got home, I felt very tired. I slept the whole day, only stopping to eat lunch at 2 p.m., then back to bed. I haven’t done this for a long time, so I just let it all hang out. Husband was in and out of the house, to use the toilet, and to take money. He said he had to feed the poll workers lunch and snacks.

It is now 8:06 p.m. and the polls have closed. So tomorrow, we will know the trends of who will run this country in the coming years.