John Kenneth Bugal during his sit-down interview with BusinessMirror
The financial consequences of losing a breadwinner can begin almost immediately. Food still has to be bought, tuition still has to be paid, and a household still has to keep running.
For John Kenneth Bugal, 28, the eldest of seven siblings, the loss of his mother, (Digna Bugal), meant not only grieving a parent but also confronting the responsibility of keeping his family afloat.
Growing up in Pangasinan, John saw firsthand the sacrifices his mother made to support their family. For nearly a decade, Digna worked as a seafood vendor, relying on the income from the small livelihood to send John and his siblings to school and eventually help him reach college.
He understood how much his mother had sacrificed for their family. So when he started working as a mathematics teacher at a private school, a job he genuinely enjoyed for nearly five years, he saw it as a way to help lighten her load.
His income allowed him to contribute to the household expenses and help support his siblings. For his mother, he said, having another source of income meant she no longer had to shoulder the family’s needs on her own. She could afford to slow down, get more rest and come home earlier instead of regularly returning late from work.
“Since I started working, she has been able to afford other household expenses. And I managed expenses for my siblings, so it was easier for us to finance [our needs] because the two of us were sharing the household expenses,” John exclusively told the BusinessMirror.
That arrangement, however, did not last long.
In 2024, John’s mother died of a stroke, leaving him to take on a responsibility he had never expected immediately to carry alone: providing for his six younger siblings.
“After a few days of her passing away, naisip ko kaagad paano kaya kami ng aking mga kapatid in the next coming days? Saan kaya kami kukuha ng pambili ng pagkain? Paano ko susuportahan ang aking kapatid?” he said.
[After a few days of her passing, I immediately started thinking about what would happen to my siblings and me in the days ahead. Where would we get money to buy food? How would I support my siblings?]
With six younger siblings depending on him, John had to make difficult decisions. He resigned from teaching and stayed in their province for two months so he could look after his siblings.
To help make ends meet, he also took on freelance online tutoring work and continues to work as a part-time financial advisor.
During those first weeks, financial support from sources available to the family helped them get through the immediate aftermath of his mother’s death. Among these was a microinsurance policy his mother had taken out in the province.
‘Her care, even after’
But one of the biggest sources of relief came from the insurance claim the family received from his mother’s Pru Life UK policy.
John had served as his mother’s financial advisor and was the one who encouraged her to get insurance. He also funded the policy, having seen firsthand the importance of having financial protection in place.
“Ma, kailangan mo ng insurance kasi once something happens, hindi ko kakayaning mag-isa,” he recalled telling her.
[Ma, you need insurance because if something happens, I won’t be able to handle everything on my own]
At the time, John said, he was not hoping for the policy to be used. Rather, it was about preparing for a possibility no family wanted to face.
“Hindi naman natin hihilingin na mangyari ’yun, pero with the right planning, as early as that, parang naplano ko na kung ano ang puwedeng mangyari. So may safety nets kami,” he said.
[We would never wish for that to happen, but with the right planning, even that early on, I had already planned for what could possibly happen. So we had safety nets in place]
John had started as a part-time financial advisor before becoming a full-time one prior to his mother’s passing.
For him, the eventual payout came to represent more than financial assistance. It became, in a sense, an extension of the support his mother had provided for the family throughout their life.
“On the beneficiary’s part, because of her claim, it feels like she’s still there supporting us even though she’s gone,” John said.
The insurance proceeds helped the family manage their immediate needs and, eventually, supported the education of one of his younger siblings, who was able to graduate from college.
“I wasn’t forced to go back to teaching. I wasn’t forced to look for other opportunities because there’s support financially even though she’s gone,” he emphasized.
Still, the family initially had no certainty that they would receive the proceeds. His mother had held the policy for only about six months when she died, prompting an investigation by the insurer that lasted nearly a month.
John said his mother was healthy and had no known illness when she obtained the policy. The uncertainty ended when the family received an email confirming that the claim had been approved.
“I saw firsthand how life insurance has helped our family. So when the claim arrived and it was approved, I cried,” he said.
The experience was particularly emotional for John because, despite working as a full-time financial advisor at Pru Life UK, he never expected that his own mother would be the first person whose family would experience the promise of the protection he was helping others secure.
Rather than discouraging him, the experience strengthened his resolve to help more breadwinners prepare for the financial consequences of losing a family’s source of income.
“Kapag pala na-feel mo na ang promise ni Pru Life UK, doon ka pala gaganahan na mag-trabaho, mag-approach pa ng maraming breadwinners na katulad ko [Once you experience Pru Life UK’s promise firsthand, that’s when you become even more motivated to work and reach out to more breadwinners like me] to protect their finances and the future of their family,” he said.
According to John, the experience underscored how difficult it can be for a family to recover when one part of its financial foundation is suddenly gone.
With the insurance claims, he said, the family did not have to feel as though everything had been reduced to zero.
“Hindi mo mararamdaman na magba-back to zero ang family mo. Life will continue,” he highlighted. “There will be loss, but aside from loss, at least, life will continue.”
The experience also deepened his view of insurance as both a profession and an essential part of financial planning.
It showed him that the value of life insurance is not only measured by what it provides while a policyholder is alive, but also by the stability it can leave behind for the people who remain.
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As published on BusinessMirror.
