What the Parents Welfare Act is, and isn't

Like many of us, Filipinos, I loved my parents dearly and unequivocally. I never left them in their old age, nor on their sickbed, and I supported them until they breathed their last.

- BY SENATOR PANFILO M. LACSON

I did everything I could to hold on to them in the waning years of their lives. Despite the bleak odds implied by their doctors, my siblings and I kept hoping and praying that they could recover and stay a little longer with us.

We would visit my mother at the hospital and then drive to my hometown in Imus, Cavite, to visit my father, also ailing after a prolonged hospital confinement.

In what would be my last visit to my mother, my heart sank as I saw her. Her body was frail, her eyes weary. In agony, she looked at me as if she was pleading to let her go.

I prayed and asked for God's guidance as I could not bear seeing her suffer any longer - "If there is absolutely no chance for her condition to improve, then, no matter how painful, I am already willing to let her go." As if God had indeed answered my prayer, she passed peacefully that night.

Never had I ever wept like a little boy until the day I first saw my mother in her coffin. At that moment, I knew my Nanay was gone. I can still vividly recall how, in spite of poverty, our parents were good, kind-hearted human beings who instilled in me and my siblings the value of integrity. Even amid poverty, we never felt poor or lacking in love.

And for these reasons, I am sure that they are both in Heaven. They are, in fact, the reason why I affirm my faith and belief that there is God.