ELDERLY citizens of Caloocan City took over management of the city government on October 2, taking over the offices of the city mayor, vice mayor, councilors, administrator, treasurer, assessor and other major posts.
Raul Sandel, a ranking officer in the city’s Office of Senior Citizens Affairs, however, denied that the takeover was a coup.
He said the occupation of the city’s top offices was not a seizure of power by elderly citizens. There was no political tension prior to the takeover.
“In fact, Mayor Oscar Malapitan, acting Vice Mayor Carolyn Cunanan, the city councilors and key appointive officials voluntarily turned over their offices to the seniors,” he said.
The turnover was only a ceremonial transfer of the management of the city’s affairs to the city’s older citizens for a day, in celebration of Senior Citizens Week, he said. Every year, to celebrate their special week, the city allows Caloocan’s older citizens to occupy the city’s top seats for one day.
On September 29, first day of the Senior Citizens Week celebration, 57 city officials, including Malapitan and Cunanan, turned their posts over to 57 senior citizens.
Sash and nameplate, both bearing their title as city officials, were pinned on the barong Tagalog and saya that the senior citizens wore.
The delegation of older citizens met with the city officials at the session hall and as doubles, sat side by side and exchanged pleasantries, Sandel said.
On October 1 the Caloocan delegation—complete with their sashes and name plates—joined elderly citizens from other cities in the National Capital Region (NCR) in the Walk for Life at the Mall of Asia.
The seniors from the other cities in the NCR thought they were in the company of Caloocan’s local government officials, Sandel said.
“Caloocan’s senior citizens were the only ones who paraded as the city mayor, vice mayor, councilors and other officials,” he said.
On October 2 they took over the Caloocan city hall from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The first thing they did was socialize with the city hall employees.
The seniors were accorded by the security guards the salutes and gestures of respect reserved for the city’s local executives, Sandel said.
He said the seniors assumed the different city hall positions in order to identify the city’s outstanding employees.
“The seniors saw that city hall was not lacking good employees,” he said.
The objective of their assumption of the different offices was to identify good employees, he said. And they saw that the city hall is not yet deprived of good staff.
“The senior citizens were impressed by the magnitude of authority that officials hold, although they held it only ceremonially for a day,” he said.
None of the ceremonial officials signed any public document or transaction, but they were seated on the same swivel chairs in the same office of the officials, Sandel said.
Each official introduced their elderly-citizen double to their staff as their boss for the day.
While seated on the mayor’s chair, Juan M. Almonte, 72, the stand-in mayor, was approached by a man seeking financial help.
“A man on crutches came in, asking for help. I gave him P100,” he said.
The elderly-citizen vice mayor, Conrado D. Roque, said, “I will always hold this day close to my heart. I will never forget the day I became Caloocan City’s vice mayor.”
The elderly-citizen city accountant, who only finished Grade 4, was extremely gratified by the experience, Sandel said.
This annual role-playing of city hall positions coinciding with celebration of Senior Citizens Week was conceptualized by Sandel nine years ago and has been commemorated the past eight years.
Image credits: Oliver Samson