“I am Roberta Abayon Oliverio, married but my husband died two years ago, because of complications due to Pneumonia. I am from Barangay Robles, Overflow Extension, La Castellana, Negros Occidental. I will be 63 years old on 20 December this year. I got married at the age of 19, and I have six children: three boys and three girls – the eldest is 43 years old now. Three are already married, the youngest died when she was still a baby. Two of my children live with me: the second-borne, 40 years old, who is a person with mental illness for five years now, and the other is 25 years old who is helping me sustain our daily meals with his one hundred seventy pesos a day.
“I do my best to address the needs of my family by selling bread and agogo around our neighborhood since my husband was sick. Sometimes I feel that people are hesitant to buy from me, maybe because I am physically unhealthy to look at. Despite that, I still pursue on the kind of livelihood I am doing. I used to earn eighty pesos to one hundred pesos a day from this. I also have a regular laundry job once a week to a teacher who pays me two hundred pesos per work done. Sometimes she will give me three cups of rice, sugar and coffee. This has helped us to defray the expenses at home, and medicine for my sick son.
“Life was not easy for us even in the past when my husband was working in a sugarcane plantation and would earn only 180 pesos a month. I would have to budget this meagre income that our family has. I would always see to it that I would prioritize buying rice every payday. I remember in those times that we seldom ate fish. I used to cook rice porridge for my children, which is either with sugar or salt to spice it up. Things have never changed until now; I almost wanted to give up, but my mentally-challenged son has kept me going.
“My husband did not have Social Security Services (SSS) contribution during his tenure as obrero. How I wished he had a membership in SSS, at least I could have been an SSS pensioner as his survivor. We could not turn back the hands of time. I thought, ‘Maybe, this is what I am destined for, and I have to face it.’
“On January 2015, one month after I celebrated my 60th birthday, I applied for social pension. I knew this privilege because I have been attending meetings in the senior citizen organization at barangay Robles. I would always visit Office of Senior Citizen Affairs (OSCA) to follow up my application. I used to share stories about our situation hoping that I will be placed on top of the list. There were several of us who were always at the office to follow up our application. There were times when I felt insulted; I felt that I wasn’t entertained well, but I have understood that there are only two people who are actively working in the office.
“The emotions I felt did not stop me from persevering to access my right to receive social pension. On June 2017, exactly two years and five months after I submitted my application, I was informed that I have been included in the second quarter pay-out.
“I was uplifted after hearing that good news. Five hundred pesos per month is already something for us. Right after that news, I listed down where the pension would go. I listed down soap, coffee, dried fish, sugar and so much more, but at the end, I realized that the money should be intended for my son’s medicines.
“As a mother, I keep on praying that he can go back on his feet soon – as a loving and trustworthy son, my confidante, and a helping hand in earning our family a living and fixing our shanty home since the time when his father was fighting for life. With my pension, I am sure he can take his medicine regularly and praying he will be well again.
“I have not yet received my first pension, because I went around La Castellana to look for my son who went missing for two days already, during the time of pay-out. The social pension focal person went to our house to inform me that my pension is already at the OSCA office.
I am so happy for this benefit, and I hope and pray that this blessing will last for a life time.
By Fidela P. Morfe, Community Development Officer – Negros (Visayas)