CEBU, Philippines — The Capitol has rewarded three female centenarians in the amount of P100,000 each.
Two are residents of Balamban town and the other one is from Daanbantayan town.
Cebu Third District Provincial Board Member John Ismael Borgonia personally handed over the check on Thursday to Anatolia Hondrada Carmelotes and Felicidad Sande Caburnay.
Carmelotes was born on July 9, 1920 in Asturias town but she lives in Barangay Buanoy, Balamban for so many years already while Caburnay was born in the town on June 12, 1920 and resides in Barangay Prenza.
Aside from the cash incentives, both also received one sack of rice each from the provincial government.
Fourth District PB Member Kerrie Keane Shimura also personally handed over the check yesterday to Remedios Cabasan Abrasada together with her husband, Daanbantayan Mayor Sun Shimura who also handed over P50,000 cash from the municipal government.
Abrasada was born on May 22, 1920 and is a native of Sitio Pantao, Barangay Carnaza, an island barangay of Daanbantayan.
Instead of giving the incentives through a check, Borgonia is planning to move to change the guidelines by giving it through cash.
He said that cash is a better form of incentive since centenarians would find it difficult to encash the check.
Borgonia explained that centenarians can no longer go to banks and majority does not have bank accounts as well as government-issued IDs to show.
For those who claim that they have grandmothers who already reached 100-year old, Borgonia said they have to present the documents such as birth certificate to prove that they already reached the said age.
"Moadto ra gyud ni sila sa ilang Municipal Social Welfare and Development Office and mo-apply sila para mahimo sila nga recipient sa kana nga centenarian," he added.
Borgonia said that there are also local ordinances for centenarians just like Carmelotes who received three incentives from the government.
Carmelotes also received P10,000 from the municipal government of Balamban aside from the P100,000 from each the Department of Social Welfare Development and the Cebu provincial government. — Gregg M. Rubio, GMR (FREEMAN)