Forums about the current
situation of the pre-need company, College Assurance Plan (CAP), are everywhere.
This shows how many Filipinos was hoping to secure good education and
retirement (for some) years ago and my dad was one of them.
Since college, though I lived
with my aunt and cousin in Manila, I was doing and learning most of the things
on my own (well, this is how my dad raised us). Since my dad worked in a Real-Estate company (before he moved to work independently) and
mostly project-based, he hoped to secure my college education through CAP’s
College Educational Plan which went down during the time that I was in college.
It was so disappointing having that piece of paper on hand but couldn’t do
anything to pay my school bills because the pre-need company don’t have funds
plus the fact that they would never give back the promised ROI to its plan
holders. It was a gamble and my parents need to start over.
I normally have no drive
to try and visit the CAP office because I’ve experienced the rude and very slow
process for reimbursement but when I was playing around with my phone and
thought of calling them, for the first time someone answered their hotline and
told me that I have check to collect. But that didn’t entice me that much
because the last time I got a check, it was 599 pesos which was almost just
what I spent for transportation and time to pick it up. As I go through the old
papers, I’ve seen that my parents started thinking about securing my future at
the age of 5 and I’ve realized how much money they invested on it especially
now that I am working.
I went to their office to
check the status of my reimbursement and as expected, there was a long line of
people hoping to get money from their investment from different parts of the
Philippines. It was so sad to see people, mostly old parents, from different
regions/provinces endure 5 to 8 hours of bus ride to go back home with nothing.
I tried to observe just to let the time pass by. I had long conversation with
people, listened to their complains and watched them smile as they start a new
friendship to the people they spent almost a day with waiting for the office to
give them answers to their questions. But even if it turned to be an easy and
happy experience, I still don’t want my parents to experience the long waiting
and not-so-nice process. As I looked at the huge room packed of people waiting,
I realized that the window serving the educational plan holders was busier than
the window serving the pension plan holders. I was fixing my dad papers for his
pension and was done in less than 30 minutes while the educational plan
reimbursement inquiry was finished after 3 hours (including not having lunch). I’ve
seen angry and disappointed faces in the packed window and grasped that
Filipinos are not that educated or don’t put much priority on thinking about “retirement.”
Filipino parents normally give everything to their children’s education which
is very adulating but may or may not be the reason why some parents force their
children to support them on their retirement as return. I am a daughter and I care
about my parents so much but I’ve seen a lot of Filipino parents putting all
the responsibilities to their children after graduation that force them to just
think about earning and not do what they want in a long run. I’ve seen parents blame
their child of not having a good life after spending so much for the child’s
education. I’ve seen corrupted children that seems to stay in where they are for
5 years just because they needed to stay “just earning” monthly just because
they are not thinking of the “long-term” and they chose to be blamed.
Every society has a good
and bad side and I think this is a part that the Filipino society needs to
improve: the education on retirement.
I also think that Filipino youth should think more of their long-term plans and
the cause and effect of their every action. This is what I like with the
Japanese society, they always leave you with the question “How do you see yourself 5 or 10 years from now?” (But I hope there’s
back up when the insurance company closed down. Haha.)
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