City officials recently honored Rosario Aurelio-Mercado as the city’s latest centenarian.
In a resolution, local legislators stated that Mercado was also a previous recipient of a cash award amounting to P10,000 from the city government as a nonagenarian in 2019.
She was reportedly delighted upon learning that she will again be receiving a cash award not only from the city government but also from the national government as a centenarian.
She claimed that she will be using the cash award that she will be receiving when she will expire so as not to burden her children financially when the time comes.
Aurelio-Mercado was born on February 14, 1923 in Bayambang, Pangasinan and the 8th among 13 children.
After graduating from college, she taught in Pampanga for two years and then got married to Jose Mercado who was working as an employee of the former Clark Air Base and then stopped teaching to focus on raising their 7 children.
Together with her family, they migrated to the city in 1980 where her children bought a house at Forest Gold, Bakakeng Norte/Sur.
Aurelio-Mercado’s 7 children are all married with of them still in Manila and Baguio while the others are in Malaysia, Canada and the United States of America, each with a family of their own.
She shared that her secret to her long life is her positive outlook in life and her food diet which is usually composed of fish and lowland vegetables.
The council noted that she still has good eyesight and hearing though she is frail and rarely goes out of her house and that she prefers to stay in her room.
According to her, her memory is already deteriorating but she recalls some significant details of her childhood when she was 16 years old where they would hide at the ‘talahiban’ when the Japanese soldiers would come patrolling their area during World War II.
The council stipulated that the latest city centenarian be granted the benefits and privileges pursuant to existing ordinances related thereto as amended.
