Fostering a culture of caring; a family’s trials

By Ramon Dacawi

BAGUIO CITY – It’s very expensive to be poor. That's why Teresita Panis - Romero, a barangay day care worker at Gibraltar, spent the last two decades of her life caring for toddlers. So their parents could be free to do household chores and to work and earn for their young families.

Suddenly last Monday, they had no one to turn over their pre-schoolers to. Punong barangay Orlando Flores told them Tessie was already gone. She had succumbed to a sudden illness early Saturday evening. Her remains were in state at the Baguio Memorial Chapels, they were told.

Juliet Flores, Kapitan Andot’s wife, thought Tessie’s tiny wards would also miss her, as their parents started to upon hearing the news. So she asked if the wake could be transferred to the day care center. So the children could have a final glimpse of their teacher and also bid her goodbye. And perhaps catch some anecdotes about her from elder boys and girls who had learned their ABC and to spell and write their names from her.

Like their parents, Tessie grew up in Gibraltar. She was the second of five children of the late Manong Fred Panis, an all-around handyman, and his widow Josephine, now 80.

Like many who settled at Gibraltar, Manong Fred raised his family as caretaker of one of the summer vacation houses of the rich. Gibraltar is part of what was once called Topside, the choice, scenic eastern side of Baguio where the city’s American founding fathers and the old rich in Manila built their cabins.

Perhaps because the rays of the sun hit Topside first, warming them up before the rest of the city in those cold mornings during the city’s formative years.
Like the owners of the vacation houses, the caretakers at Topside and their children knew each other during those years when Baguio was practically one neighborhood.

That’s why the children of Eugenio Mateo, caretaker of the Tuazon house along Baguio Country Rd., and those of Paulino Arnaiz who maintained the First National City Bank staff house at Outlook Drive, came to Tessie’s wake.

As the kids of the vacationing rich studied together - in exclusive schools-, so did the caretakers’ children go to the public Pacdal (now Rizal) Elementary School). They were classmates of Tessie, her elder sisters Lita and Lolita, or younger siblings Lydia and Roberto.

Manong Fred was quite popular even beyond Topside. Perhaps because he was generous to a fault. He was always there to cook at baptisms, weddings and to serve at funeral wakes.

He was ready to treat friends to bottles of gin with his hard-earned pay as a plumber, carpenter, mason and small-time contractor. He never out-grew the joy of hunting wild mushrooms on mountainsides where houses eventually sprouted. Or catching bullfrogs in the creek that had since died.

Tessie married Mario Romero, her high school and college classmate. Mario, originally from Cebu, arrived in Baguio when he was 15, with an uncle assigned to preach gospel truth here.

The couple raised four children whom they supported through college - Kristine, Joseph, Roschelle and Elizabeth. The first three gave their parents seven grandchildren – Lance Gideon, Kleziah, Sunshine, Angel Gwyneth, Gabriel.,Keira and Geoff Elisha. Elizabeth is preparing for the board exams in accountancy.

Tessie knew it’s more expensive to die than to live poor. That’s why she registered and regularly paid her dues with the Social Security System as a self-employed member.

It entitled her family to a P20,000 support for the cost of the funeral.
She could not enlist with the Government Service Insurance System.

That’s because she could not be absorbed as a regular city employee under the city social welfare and development office. It would be in violation of the anti-nepotism act, as her elder sister Lita is already a regular day care worker.

Mario, who also worked with the city social welfare office, wondered why the same law doesn’t apply to relatives of high-ranking officials taken in their offices as “confidential” staff enjoying regular salaries.

As volunteer worker, Tessie received P4,000 monthly honorarium from the city and P1,000 from the barangay. Still, she served more than some in regular plantilla positions. Mario remembers having to fetch his wife home at times when she would be working at the center hours after her wards had been fetched by their parents coming from work.

Tessie was rushed to a hospital after her class the other Thursday. She felt better and was glad to be released and be at the day care center the following morning. At mid-morning Friday, she experienced difficulty breathing and had to dismiss the class. Again, she was rushed to the hospital. Early evening of the following day, July 11, she passed on.

Tessie was laid to rest last Thursday, beside her father at the city cemetery.
It’s always very expensive to be poor. That’s why Tessie worked for two decades, quietly fleshing out her city’s slogan for its centennial – Fostering a Culture of caring - years before the theme was coined..