Filipino banana cue vendor Estrella Batilo, from Barangay Bagong Lipunan, Buhangin, Davao City has to grapple with everyday survival. Desperate to feed her family, Estrella took the risk of going out of her house to sell banana cue in front of Cariedo Elementary School just to survive each passing day.
Also, another senior citizen from Baganga, Davao Oriental expressed her struggles in this pandemic. “It is indeed difficult to cope with the pandemic, especially that I lost my passion for teaching. I love teaching and it is my only way to prevent aging,” said Consuelo Dela Salde, 76, a retired college professor in St. Mary’s College.
Being an educator for 42 years, the senior citizen has spent almost half of her life doing the thing she loves, only waking up one day to find that she could no longer do it freely.Many senior citizens around the world continue to find their balance amid the Covid-19 pandemic. While others were able to adjust to the ‘new normal’ and stay in the comfort of their own homes, some have to leave their homes to make a living.
Senior citizens on the global scale have their fair share of lockdown experience and for Filipino elderly, they did not hide their disdain or disgruntled agreement with the lockdown and restrictions.
Barely felt
At 65, Estrella is living with her husband, Franklin Batilo, 60, and two children, Jalter, 38, and Jennifer, 34, who are all unemployed.
The first three months of intensive lockdown last year have been difficult for her family that survived only on selling banana cue. Food and medicine maintenance for her diabetes were barely met as customers declined. The increased prices of goods and services added burden to her situation.
“It’s tiring and difficult to make money. I cannot just go out because I’m a senior. It’s difficult to have something to eat and maintain my medicines due to low income. If it was hard then, it is harder now,” she expressed.
Despite conceding to the Philippine government’s Covid-19 strict regulations, she expressed dismay with what she described as the government’s “lousy” plans and programs for senior citizens like her.
“Not everyone was granted assistance from the government’s Social Amelioration Program. Some seniors received assistance, a few have not, and others were only chosen,” Estrella said, who asked for clarifications from officials.
Republic Act 9994, otherwise known as the “Expanded Senior Citizens Act of 2010,” provides that any resident citizen of the Philippines at least 60-years old are entitled to the following benefits and privileges: employment, education, health, social services, housing, access to public transport, incentive for foster care, social pension, Philhealth coverage, and social safety nets given that they have proof of their senior citizenship.
However, many senior citizens still protest that benefits and privileges for them were barely felt.
Boredom
Consuelo admitted to feeling lonely in the first few months in quarantine and being frustrated at times for being disallowed to go out. Her family bought her a cellphone to kill lockdown boredoms.
“My grandmother was really discouraged since the pandemic. That’s why we bought her a cellphone and taught her how to use Facebook,” her granddaughter, Allison Dela Salde said.
The elder Dela Salde shared how the pandemic affected their family, most especially their livelihood and lifestyle.
“I don’t have high blood pressure before because I’m still actively teaching. Now, I don’t have anything to do at home. Sometimes, I am the one who cooks so that I have something to get busy with,” she said.
She receives her teacher pension every month, and if not enough, her children give her money.
As a regular Church mass-goer, she would complain about church restrictions against going to mass and the leniency towards mall operations allowing shoppers inside.
“I don’t like their restrictions on going to church while they can open the malls,” she said.
Filipino elderly abroad
In the United States, since Texas Governor Greg Abott issued an executive stay-at-home order in March last year, the smell of baked goods would take over the Aligno household in the city of Corpus Christi.
Medalia Aligno, the 71-year-old Filipino American followed the regulations with no hesitation. She delved into baking and trying new recipes during the strict lockdown. From banana bread to coffee cake, she spent countless hours in the kitchen baking the time away.
She also honed her craft by creating homemade Filipino dishes. Her specialties during the stagnant time were fresh lumpia and menudo.
Knowing that she and her husband could not even begin to finish all her cooked dishes, she called the members of the Corpus Christi Filipino Catholic Community (CCFCC) to drive by her home and pick up portions for their own families.
Due to the pandemic, Medalia did not allow any visitors in her home. She packed the extra portions into containers and disinfected them as a precaution.
The members of the community would drive by her mailbox, where she placed the container of food, and pick it up for their own families to enjoy.
Medalia also began to immerse herself into caring for houseplants. She constantly researched the topic of botany through reading online forums and browsing social media.
She had no problem adjusting to the lifestyle that came with the lockdown and strict protocols given by the city government.
“The strict lockdown was fine. To be honest, it was good. It was needed to lower the cases in the city,” Medalia said.
Her husband Pat, 73, shared the same sentiment.
He spent his time in lockdown tuning up his bike and going out on solo rides out in the open with no one near him to ensure his safety.
“I liked the lockdown because it was peaceful,” the husband said. “You just need to find something to pass the time.”
The Aligno couple has been living in Corpus Christi for over 40 years after immigrating from Davao City.
The seniors are the parents of five children who are all above 35 years old and grandparents to 11 children.
Speed up vaccination
The Aligno couple’s biggest challenge during the lockdown was being unable to see their loved ones face-to-face. However, technology aided in easing the said burden.
Finances were not a problem for the couple during strict lockdown. Their pension checks were proved to sustain them through and through.
Medalia said her children were on standby if they needed anything. On top of that, the CCFCC members continuously checked up on the family and delivered their groceries.
Back home in the Philippines, when asked if she believed in Covid-19, Consuelo said yes. What she does not believe is the government’s Covid-19 response.
“Sometimes I think that they just want our money. They fabricate other cases to have a budget. But who knows?” she expressed.
Consuelo and Estrella urged the government to speed up the Covid-19 vaccination program and provide equal and enough financial assistance to senior citizens. They also called on the IATF to loosen up their guidelines a bit.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) identified senior citizens among the list of vulnerable and priority groups to be vaccinated.As of now, Medalia and Pat are fully vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine. The senior couple continue to follow health protocols such as wearing face masks and social distancing.
While there have been zero deaths due to coronavirus in the past two weeks in Corpus Christi, as of May 6, there have been a total of 1,080,172 recorded COVID-19 cases in the Philippines. Of this number, 83,931 are cases involving senior citizens. (By Janine Dela Cruz and Euneece Angella Olbes/ADDU Interns)
Covid-19 woes: Poverty, technical glitzes hound public school learning
Eight-grader Ambas Onas particularly finds it difficult to understand his math modules as he struggles with the modular system in a rural setting, already fraught with built-in lack of communication and social services infrastructure.
“Meron naman kaming natutunan ngunit konti lang dahil kapag may research na gagawin wala kaming pupuntahan. Wala kaming mga gadget sapagkat nakatira kami sa rural area o bukid (I am still able to learn something, but it is difficult for me when it comes to doing research to learn more about the lesson. I don’t have a gadget, especially that I live in the rural area),” he said.
Onas is a student of Don Don Amancio Bendigo Sr Inawayan Extension Class National High School in Toril district, some 20 kilometers west of downtown.
Alliyah Kayla D. Comiso, a seventh grade student from Binugao Central school of the same Toril district finds it exhausting too. “My only opinion on this system is that it is exhausting, making me less motivated to learn anything,” she said.
But she has to comply to the module system “as not everyone has the means to attend online class”.
Marhiel Q. Echon, a 10th grade student from Dona Carmen Denia National High School in this city said the difficult part is when they are introduced to new topics. “We are unable to comprehend it because it is self-learning. And some teachers don’t even answer our questions, making it even more difficult for us to grasp the content” she said.
The Covid-19 pandemic has shifted the education system from face-to-face learning to a distance learning approach. Public schools have opted for the module system because many students struggle with internet connectivity and many families do not have gadgets at all not have the capacity to participate in online classes.
Aside from that, public school students still struggle to keep up with the system and most of the time they still need internet access because some schools distribute modules through the email and messenger. And students need to research certahin topics to further understand the lesson.
Rural infrastructure
While the modular system would still need occasional Internet access to supplement learning, students have a bigger problem than connectivity alone. Electricity alone is a big desire.
“Since nakatira ako sa rural area na walang kuryente at wala kaming sapat na mga kagamitan, nagtipon tipon ang aming mga guro upang ibahagi ang mga printed outputs na kailangang sagutan na galing sa mga lumang libro ng mga old students dati sa aming paaralan (Since I live in a rural area, sometimes there is no electricity and we don’t have enough material resources. All of our teachers gathered to share the printed outputs from the old books from the old students for us to answer it),” he said.
Kim Mendoza, a 11th grade student from Santa Cruz National High School here, said self-learning is an uphill grind, with some questions in the modules confusing her “as there are not enough substantial explanations and the printed texts are not clear enough”.
“There are even activities that require a laptop, in which not everyone can afford,” she added.
For those with power supply, connectivity comes as another scourge.
“Slow internet connection is my greatest enemy since I always search in google whenever I’m in a pinch in doing my modules” Alliyah Comiso said.
Bothersome
Poverty also rears its ugly head to disrupt a conducive learning environment for pupils and students.
“Nakakulong lang ako sa bahay at nakaka stress minsan dahil pinagsasabay ko ang aking pag aaral sa trabaho at gawain sa bahay. Mahirap rin ito dahil minsan nawawalan ako ng oras sa modules dahil tambak ang mga gawain sa bahay (I am always staying inside the house and it made me stress because while I am studying my lessons, at the same time, I do some household chores. It’s really hard to do it and sometimes I do not have time for my studies because of my chores)” Onas said.
On top of that, some teachers give extra assignments and projects outside of these modules that may require money.
Comiso disclosed she was given an assignment where her teacher asked her to make a video about a house tour and a handwashing video.
Marheil Echon, who enrolled in a creative arts program, was assigned a project which needed her to paint on a canvas, and she said that the materials needed were expensive.
A taxi driver here said the teachers of his two children asked them to buy a pair of jogging pants for a dance demonstration. “That is P160 per pair times two. It’s stressful because I earn only 300 a day these days. Sometimes the school would give them two projects in a week. Hope the Department of Education would tell these teachers to spare us of these projects,” he said.
Ms.Debbie Borces, a MAPEH teacher from Ula National High School has been cautious when it comes to assigning extra tasks to her students because she sticks to her philosophy of “no learner left behind”.
Students should be able to keep up with the lesson first, she said.
“I always give options whenever the needed resources for a task are not available. For example, they are asked to submit a video for their performance task in PE [physical education] presenting a folk dance, since not all of them have internet, those who can’t send a video online will be writing/enumerating/describing the dance figures” she said.
Wish
“My only wish for the upcoming school year is that the school will officially announce face to face classes because to be honest I preferred listening to lectures rather than always working on some sheet of paper” said Alliyah Comiso.
Onas wished government to provide internet connection and electricity in the countryside “so that I can gather more relevant information about our activities and assignments since we only rely on copies of our textbooks provided by our school”.
“I suggest that more textbooks are at least provided so that it would be better and easier for us students to gather information about the tasks given by our teachers and it can prevent students from copying one student’s work,” he added.
“I suggest that the schools include precise introductions of the lessons or give us an understanding about the task before we can answer it,” Kim Mendoza said. (Shaine Andrea Marie Go and Cyrlill Jess C. Astronomo/ADDU interns)
