Mang Dencio's annual report

SOME readers might remember Mang Dencio, who was my father's driver for many years until one day in 1998, a stroke sent him into early retirement. He was only 58 then. I wrote about him a year after his stroke, describing his trials and tribulations as he went through the bureaucratic maze to get his Social Security System (SSS) disability benefits. The response was immediate, kind people at the SSS calling in to help out with his papers.

Mang Dencio kept in touch, usually visiting around Christmas to ask about my parents, and their dogs, and cats, and to tell me how he's doing. I thought I should share his latest "annual report" because Mang Dencio is, in many ways, the Juan de la Cruz we rarely hear about, probably one of those who would have expressed, as 90 percent of respondents did in the Social Weather Stations' latest survey, hope and optimism for the new year.

Usually the first thing I ask Mang Dencio about are his disability payments. I have a special interest here because several years back, I told my parents I would start paying SSS and Medicare (now Philhealth) for Mang Dencio as well as their household helpers. The idea seemed strange then, many people thinking then (and now) that it's a waste to make contributions to SSS for household staff.

I had Mang Dencio on SSS and Philhealth for only about five years before he had his stroke but because of those payments we were able to reimburse some of his hospital expenses and apply for his disability pay. Unfortunately, he is apparently not entitled to pension payments because he had fewer than 10 years on his SSS. His wife had wisely enrolled herself in the SSS as a self-employed person for more than 10 years, and is now getting a monthly check of about a thousand pesos. "Maliit" (small), Mang Dencio says about the pension, but, "OK lang," it does help.

Mang Dencio's disability payments of about 1,500 pesos a month have stopped because the SSS eventually gave him a lump sum, which he described as "malaki" (big). "Big" was of course relative, amounting to 28,000 pesos, a huge sum indeed for Mang Dencio and his wife. They used the money to add two rooms to their home and buy a refrigerator to stock soft drinks to sell. Rent on the two rooms at 1,500 pesos each, their "sari-sari store," and his wife's SSS pension check bring an average of about 4,500 pesos a month. OK lang, he says, enough to live by, including his medicines for his blood pressure.

His health, too, is "OK lang." He limps along and had two close brushes with new strokes, one time when he thought he'd smoke "just one" cigarette, another time when he couldn't resist a swig with former drinking buddies. His friends rushed him to the local government health center, where the staff took care of him while giving him a sermon on his "just one more" attitude. He goes regularly to the center for check-ups, and advice on what to eat, on how to exercise. He's learned to buy generic versions of his medicines, which further stretches his budget.

Mang Dencio's annual report always includes an update on his house. About 10 years ago, he was able to acquire "rights" to a piece of land, part of a local government initiative of low-cost housing. I haven't figured out how this "rights" system works but it seems to be quite widespread in urban areas. When Mang Dencio first got his "rights," he was gushing with excitement, describing the lot as "malaki." It was 72 square meters, big given that our last national census in 2000 found that the average living space of a Filipino household was all of 29 square meters.

Mang Dencio built his home slowly, over the years, a bit here, a bit there, going horizontally, then vertically. Part of his house was built on recycled materials, stuff he'd pick up from my parents whenever they'd renovate. He still doesn't own his lot but has set aside money, waiting for the National Housing Authority to deliver on promises of titles. But he's worried. The area's developing rapidly and he suspects big-time housing developers are going to come in, and that they'll lose their rights.

Mang Dencio has a son, and he knows he's fortunate he only had that one child, who they were able to send all the way through vocational school. They sold their carabao back in Iloilo to get him a passport and pay placement fees for a job overseas but nothing came out of that. He shrugs his shoulders, "OK lang." Having the son around is good, too, he says. The son was crazy about karaoke so they bought a VCD player but that sent their Meralco bill soaring so he's packed it up again. The monthly bill went down from 700 to 620 pesos. Eighty pesos, I was reminded, meant big savings for Mang Dencio.

And so Mang Dencio's annual report went, his descriptions of the big and the small reminding me how relative the terms are. I am amazed at how he stretches 4,500 pesos to meet his family's needs, but appreciate, too, how "small" investments, whether through SSS payments or visits to the health center, do make a world of a difference for survival.

And while I'd nod whenever Mang Dencio would go, "OK lang," I still feel he and most Filipinos deserve more, much more. I don't see why anyone has to sell their only carabao to send a son or daughter to work overseas. And I don't know why government can't get its act together with housing, allowing a system of land "rights" without titles. And while I'm happy that Mang Dencio gets extra rental income from two rooms, I can imagine the pressure felt by a family, usually migrants from rural areas, who have to pay 1,500 pesos a month for a room.

Especially with elections coming around, we're going to see politicians grabbing every opportunity to get publicity, posing with the children, giving out T-shirts and caps. It takes so little to win votes because Filipinos demand too little and are too quick to decide, OK lang, after one of those show-biz performances. And because our politics is so show biz, politicians never get to sit down and seriously listen to "annual reports" like those of Mang Dencio, describing how they work and save for the future and the small things from government that do count in many a Filipino's big simple dreams.

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