Cebu City’s centenarians to receive cash gift

City Hall will award today eight of the oldest residents n Cebu City who have lived for 100 years or more.

Each centenarian will receive a cash gift of P100,000 from Mayor Michael Rama during a dinner at the Waterfront Hotel in Lahug, where other awardees will be recognized for the 76th Charter Day celebration.

After a 7 a.m. Mass at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral, Mayor Rama will lead a flag raising ceremony at the Plaza Sugbu. Flowers will be offered at the bust monument of Don Vicente Rama, the father of the city’s charter.

The City Council approved the cash gifts for the centenarians in a resolution filed by Councilor Leah Japson last Wednesday.

Awardees include Simeon Rama Suplac, 103 years old, of barangay Talamban; Maria Isip Ochia, 101 years old, of barangay Sambag 1; Lucial Villarta Yncierto, 101 years old, of barangay Lahug;

Nasaria Matig-a Bantilan, 101 years old, of barangay Busay; Justina Umacab Arenasa, 102 years old, from barangay Mabolo; Irene Famador Leyson, 100 years old, of barangay Talamban;

Condrado Canaya Regis, 101 years old, of barangay San Nicolas; and Teofila Fernandez Alino, 100 years old, of Cogon Pardo.

Other Charter Day awardees are Architect Socorro Atega and Raymund Alcoseba Abao while the Outstanding Institutions are the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (ERUF), IPI Foundation Inc. and Rotary Club of Cebu West.

Atega, a volunteer outdoor landscaper for the Parks and Playgrounds Commission, uses indigenous materials in her design while IPI Foundation had been donating wheel chairs and medicine to the city’s 80 barangays. ERUF had been active in the city’s life saving programs.

Mayor Rama will also be handing out special awards to SM City Cebu, Ayala Center Cebu, 888 News Forum, Dr. Lourdes Jereza and Punta barangay captain Jose Navarro.

Jereza was among those responsible in the identification and selection of the 75 “families of distinction” which the city government recognized by groups in monthly award rites throughout the year following its 75th Charter Day. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac