Centenarians bare ‘secrets’ to long life

COMMUNITY BILLBOARD

Alpine L. Killa

BONTOC, Mountain Province– Two centenarians included in the list of centenarian awardees recognized by the provincial government Tuesday bared their “secrets” to long life.

Provincial Ordinance No. 192 also known as the Centenarian Recognition and Awards Ordinance, provides recognition of residents in Mountain Province who have reached their centenary. A centenarian is defined as someone who is one hundred years old or older.

One hundred year old Bagawe Pok-oran Cas-oy who was born on Sept. 1, 1908 in Barangay Sacasacan is the oldest registered senior citizen member in the municipality of Sadanga.  Cas-oy was blessed with six children who are all married and have their own families.

Sadanga town records showed from her six children, she now has 41 grandchildren and 52 great grandchildren. She lives alone in a small house where her children and grandchildren visit her, attend to her needs, bathe her and provide her basic necessities. She prefers to stay separately from her children’s families despite their efforts to convince her to stay with any of them.

Her young years were spent in helping her parents in the fields as education was not a priority by the old folks in the past. Life in their village was simple and people ate organically-grown food like camote, banana, squash, legumes which they themselves plant and grow. Her long life was free from chemical food additives which she believes to cause health problems. 

Meanwhile, 103-year old Dolores Wayan Giong-an who was born on Sept. 24, 1913 in Camatagan, Sabangan also reached her age because she eats organic food. She spent most of her years as a farmer, but became physically weak in 2010. Despite this, her children attested that their mother is happy reaching her age as she has watched her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren grow.

Cas-oy and Giong-an were awarded with congratulatory resolution, plaque of recognition, and a one-time cash award of P20,000 each. 

The awards were received by the children of the centenarians from Gov. Bonifacio C. Lacwasan, Jr. and Vice Gov. Francis O. Tauli and were witnessed by the members of Sangguniang Panlalawigan and families of centenarians. 

A centenarian is entitled to regular monthly visit by government health personnel for health check-up in his/ her residence and monitoring by the Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office.

Ayleen Fateg of the PSWDO said that before a centenarian is recognized, his or her birth certificate must be submitted. In the absence of a birth certificate, the awardee can submit a baptismal certificate, school, or employment records and other documents that can establish his or her date of birth, which is acceptable to the Provincial Centenarian Committee.

She added that since the ordinance was enacted last year, there are now 13 centenarians that were recognized by the provincial government.