Monday, July 30, 2007 Pangan: Midlife By Benjie R. Pangan At Close Range
WHEN someone reaches 60, he sometimes becomes quizzical about the remaining years in his life: can he maintain his pace and health 10 years from now?
Will his children and grandchildren still need and feed him when he's 64? With some windfall from sudden inheritance from a solicitous aunt, will he attract a new wife or long-lost relatives?
With the normal span or life expectancy getting shorter nowadays, in most cases 55, a sexagenarian becomes an interesting topic.
Like, what is his secret in attaining a relatively long life? Does he have vices, drink magical herbs and keep a mistress? If he is a widower, does he have plans to remarry or remain a celibate?
To some, reaching 60 is a feat, an achievement on one hand, punctuated by rejoicing over the children's good performance in school and respective careers and a slew of disappointments, on the other hand, starting with unfulfilled pledges and mutterings and ending with mounting bills and uncollectibles.
Still for others, reaching midlife is an advantage over contemporaries who have passed away or who have debilitating illnesses and can no longer appreciate the beauty of life and living.
Ah, life is sweet and fulfilling if we only know how to savor every part of it, every living minute. Such is the beauty of living, the elixir of life, especially if one gets to be 60 and beyond.
When I grow older, losing my hair. Many years from now...Will you still need me, will you still feed me, When I'm 64. (from the Beatles' When I'm 64)
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Taytay, an erstwhile backward town in the province of Rizal, is serious on its bid to become the second component city in the province and has started spadework toward the conversion of the now first-class municipality into a city.
Mayor Joric Gacula had already tasked his head executive assistant Billy Ines to lead the committee on cityhood whose tasks, according to press releases, are: 1) to find out the pros and cons of cityhood, 2) validate if the municipality is ripe to become a city and 3) to solicit reactions and sentiments of the residents on the issue.
Mayor Gacula has excitedly disclosed that the Taytay Municipal Government is now completing requirements mandated by the Local Government Code on the standards on population and revenue collections. Taytay's target revenue this year is estimated at P240 million which is P6 million below its approved budget for 2007.
Like the other towns that have been converted into cities, Taytay stands to get a bigger share in the Internal Revenue Allotment from the National Government once it becomes a city.
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On the same route but on a different staging boat for cityhood is the town of Mabalacat, which is strategically located for investors and, like Taytay, is a first-class municipality and fast growing.
According to Mayor Boking Morales, all the ingredients to cook up a cityhood drive are already present and "improving" and the next steps he and his team should take would be: 1) make representations with Vice Governor Yeng Guiao and the Provincial Board; 2) urge Pampanga first district Representative Carmelo"Tarzan" Lazatin, a known close ally of Mayor Boking to file pronto the bill sponsoring Mabalacat conversion into a component city; and 3) start a massive info drive to familiarize Mabalaquenos on the need to convert and the benefits accruing to the locality once it becomes a city.
I have hopes that in due time, Mabalacat will metamorphose into a city of peace, beauty and progress. The ball is in the hands of Mayor Boking and his team led by Dado Lingad, municipal administrator; Jun Magbalot, chief of staff; Rosan Paquia, MPDC; and the rest of the bright boys. Well, Mayor, puedeng puede na?
