Seniority rules

IT’S GREAT to be a senior citizen. Yeah, I fully embrace the advancement of years many others have not been blessed with.

I haven’t slowed down from having a blast since reaching – in February 2014 – the  discounted life, meaning: 

Less figuratively now – that is the shortened distance to the end-times which heralds either dread of the unknown or great anticipation of the heavenly reward, depending where one sits in the religious divide.

Most literally now – the 20 percent discount in transport fare, resto bills, purchases, especially of maintenance meds, etcetera that comes with age 60 and stays on until, well, kingdom come.

Where before those charming pharmacists at SM City Clark Watsons got their noses bleeding, their tongues twisting with the King’s English when I bought my maintenance dosage for the week, ever-mistaking me for some European or Latino, now they get shocked in disbelief when I flash my senior citizen card to avail myself of my 20 percent discount. Love it both ways, then and now. The ego – pogi, eh – gets sated many, many times over.

Great too getting Wendy’s pretzel bacon cheeseburger – what with a lane dedicated to SCs and PWDs, fully respected and observed even when the other lanes are clogged with younger patrons. And no signatures asked, the SC card sufficed.

Even stricter with the SC lane are SM malls’ hyper- and supermarkets, ditto Walter Mart’s – no SC card, no pass at the cashiers’ slots, no matter how kilometric are the queues on the other lanes. I find here my SC card superior even to my SM Prestige card      

No dedicated lanes for SCs but just as breezy with their service for the elderly are Krispy Kreme and Starbucks – you just get seated and get served, the discounted bill coming later. Of course, it pays to have Sun-Star Pampanga’s Rey Navales at the former and this paper’s Ashley Manabat at the latter, being virtual fixtures at the said coffeeshops, earning them not only credit but the staffs’ trust and confidence.   

At BDO, BPI and Metrobank where deposited the little that remains from the charities of family and friends, my SC card makes easy access pass – no, not of the DOM kind, but for deposits or withdrawals, duh – to the tellers. Wish though the banks have dedicated restrooms for their customers, especially for SCs undergoing water therapies or afflicted with busted bladders.

It is in airports though that I find my SC card most magical. At a recent trip to Boracay, it was a breeze for me through the check-in counter at the Kalibo Airport, notwithstanding their downed operating systems. While my press juniors had to go through the longest queue. Aye, it pays to be old.   

Woe unto them though that don’t observe the seniority rule! Here the SC card turns into some weapon against injustice.

McDonald’s at Dolores Junction has this “Priority Lane for SCs and PWDs,” which, sadly, is more honoured in the breach. I had had two rows with McDo on this clear violation of the SC law. Senior moments, in a different, aye, affirmative, sense they are to me too.

The first time, I was not an SC yet, buying breakfast meals for the unmistakably elderly punye…, er, poetang Kapampangan Macky Pangan and laureadu Felix Garcia, who both happened to have a sudden bout with gout that restricted them to their seats.

Lined up at the clearly marked priority lane for SCs and PWDs were teens in their school uniforms, a young couple with tots, some employees. Last in the queue of 10, I patiently waited for my turn. My temper got the better of me when I got to third in line, snatching the priority lane sign and slamming it on the counter.

“Useless, you don’t follow it anyway,” I shouted at the service crew, drawing the attention of the security guard whom I put in place with a snarl: “Wag kang makialam, lumalabag kayo sa batas dito.”

The manager was profuse with her apologies and offered to get my orders herself and serve them at our table which I rejected, lecturing her on the rights of SCs while I waited for my turn at the counter.

And then, five months into my senior citizenship, again with Macky and Felix. The priority lane had an SC at its head, followed by four school-age kids and two 30-something ladies.

The open lane had only two in line so I took the slot and got served fast. I did not want to make a fuss this time.

Finishing our pancakes and sausage breakfast, I noticed the priority lane still clogged by the young, with a manang holding her SC card at the tail end.

I stood up, asked the manang to please get to the head of the line, and ordered – in a voice that boomed across the place – the service crew to serve her as it is her right to be served first, warning them: ”You are discriminating against senior citizens here.”

All eyes of the customers were on me but what did I care? Senior ito! I know our rights and I shall make sure they are respected, they are upheld, whenever challenged.

Just a week before the above cited incident, City of San Fernando Mayor Edwin “EdSa” Santiago paid the highest respect to the elderly, enjoining the community to treat them as “senior-itos and senior-itas” if only for their contribution to the development of the city. This, at the launch of the “Libreng Sine para sa Senior Citizens” program at the SM City Pampanga mall, where the elderly can avail themselves of free movie viewing every first screening on Mondays at the two SM malls in the capital city and at Robinsons Starmills.   

And that – seniority rules – is what it ought to be. Nothing special there, just simple respect for the law.

If this piece sounds like my faithful readers have read it before, they have. Rehashed as it is from two years back, in celebration of the Week of the Filipino Elderly last week yet but missed. Blame it to senior moments.