Do senior citizens deserve to be models for the youth?

We have heard, not only once but quite a number of times, that senior citizens are called models for the youth. This should be true, supposedly. This particular statement giving high honor to senior citizens is usually heard during the celebration of the Senior Citizens month every October.

How we wish this to be really true among senior citizens not only in words but in deed as well. How we really wish that their personal qualities that make them deserving of this particular honor are made concretely observable in their daily life not only in what they say but also in what they do, in secret or in public, personally or officially.

For instance, with the personal quality of honesty, are all senior citizens honest? Of course I believe majority are honest. But it cannot be denied that some are not. Proof to this is loudly expressed in the following observations reinforced by reliable feedbacks:

1. Sometime, in the immediate past, an organization of senior citizens just sprouted in a certain sitio of a barangay in Cebu City. The president, a lady senior citizen, alleged that her group was organized by a worker of the DSWS. This president further alleged that the said DSWS worker appointed her as president of the organization.

2. In the first few years of this organization, there were no other officers. The president acted as the treasurer, collected monthly contributions from the members but without receipts. Until now collections are made and still without receipts.

3. This organization until now does not have an office of its own. There seems to be no financial records to how much is the total collections from time-to-time, how much were disbursed and for what purpose. And the worst is the members do not know where the organization money is kept.

4. Until now there has been no accounting, none at all, of organization’s financial resources even once from the time when this organization started.

5. When a member dies or is hospitalized, the president would first collect contributions from the members in order to be able to give financial assistance. Yet the collections of monthly contributions from the members are made every month. But, of course, without receipt. And surprisingly the amount given as hospitalization assistance seldom reaches P500.

On the basis of the personal observations and feedbacks mentioned above, it is substantially clear that there are some members of our sector who do not deserve the honor of being models.

If we remain passive, especially the officials and the government authorities concerned, in the face of character deterioration in some part of our sector, then all our concerted efforts as well as the government resources used to attain a higher level of achievement of all our desired levels of success will go to waste. Necessary steps must be initiated by the government agency concerned to prevent the fire of corruption from spreading further.

It is fervently hoped that after all the factual revelations above, a senior citizen, in order to become fully deserving of “being the models for the youth,” should posses and manifest in their daily life moral values like integrity, sincerity, credibility , objectivity, and incorruptibility - to name a few. All these values will mold the character of a senior citizen to be honest, reliable and dependable. Like beautiful flowers these spiritual values will come out blooming in the garden of the personality of a senior citizen. If this level of morality, with the fear of God above all, is attained and made visible in our organizations then not only TRANSPARENCY and ACCOUNTABILITY will shine over and above our entire sector but also brightly the HONOR that we, senior citizens, really deserve to be called “MODELS FOR THE YOUTH.”

FAMILY OF VOTERS.