Being a retired teacher, Nanay Vierna de Jesus, a 64 year-old senior citizen from Sara, Iloilo, receives her monthly pension from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), thus, this disqualified her from the Social Pension Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD6).
“Grabe guid ang akon kasubo sang wala ako kasulod bilang pensioner sa Social Pension Program. Pero ang ginabaton ko nga pension kada bulan, indi guid ka sustinir sa akon mga bulong para sa akon mga balatian,” (“I was devastated when I learned about my disqualification in the Social Pension Program. But the pension I receive every month cannot sustain my medical expenses for my various health problems,”) Nanay Vierna, teary-eyed as she related.

Nanay Vierna has a husband who is suffering from prostate and eye ailments himself. The small land where they harvest rice can only provide them for as much as their daily rations and just enough to pay their debts which are the only means they know to support both their medications.
She has a son but he entered an early marriage, so instead of helping out, he had become an additional baggage to his parents. But everything doesn’t seem so hard when Nanay Vierna tend to her only granddaughter whom she considers as the source of everything good in her life.
Her tears threatening to fall, Nanay Vierna reflected the time when she retired from her teaching career while she was just 47 in order to treat her thyroid inflammation which hindered her from using her voice.
Over the years, she suffered from various ailments including kidney trouble, pneumonia, frequent allergies, and the most recent anemia.
Nanay Vierna emphasized that fighting all these illnesses, she can’t help but to contemplate on how and where she might find an answer to her problems.
“Dako guid ang akon kalipay kag pasalamat kay may ara LINGAP sa MASA Program nga nakabulig guid sa akon sang dako para mabakal ko ang akon mga kinahanglan nga bulong,” (“I am so happy and very thankful to the LINGAP sa MASA Program which greatly helped and allowed me to purchase all my medical necessities,”) Nanay Vierna happily expressed.
Nanay Vierna availed a total of 8,735php worth of kidney and anemia medicine as provided by the LINGAP sa MASA Program of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
“Tungod sa Programa nga ini, mabuhinan na ang problema sang mga pigado nga gahimakas man makapangita sang igastos sa ila pa-hospital kag mga bulong,” (“Through this program, the hospital bills and medical expenses of the poor may not be as much as a problem anymore,”) Nanay Vierna finally stated./dswd6/Xzyrabelle Servento