The original 'hamog' boys

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

April 1, 1996, would have been just another necklace day for Teddy Bernardo and Cesar Rivera, an unlucky day for a pedestrian suddenly separated from her neck adornment. But that day the two teenagers wanted to try something else.

They decided to go to SM City in Quezon City, a stone’s throw away from the San Roque slums where they lived. It was close to noon when they spotted 14-year-old Oliver Ang, a scholar at the nearby Philippine Science High School, paying for his meal at Wendy’s. He was alone.

“We were not inside Wendy’s,” recalled one of the two boys when I interviewed them at the Quezon City jail. “We were outside watching him through the glass panel.” When Oliver stepped out, Cesar and Teddy walked close to him. Cesar was beside Oliver, Teddy was slightly behind. Cesar put his arm around Oliver’s shoulders. “Nakaakbay,” he said.

Cesar and Teddy had bladed weapons, slightly hidden but sharp enough for Oliver to feel. The three barely spoke and passed other people without calling attention. No one noticed that a boy was being held up. No one noticed that the boy at the center looked different, that he looked every inch a school boy.

“We were not wearing rugged clothes,” Cesar said, “but we were wearing slippers, alpombra.” People failed to notice that something was wrong.

Taking Oliver some distance away from where they got him was not difficult. Cesar and Teddy described to me the route they took (which I would later walk through so I could picture how it all happened). From Wendy’s they walked across the front of SM then crossed North Avenue (near the Edsa intersection which had traffic lights at that time) to the bus stop. (That SM wing where Wendy’s was located has since given way to a much bigger SM annex.)

The three crossed Edsa and went toward the old Paramount Theater (where Radio Veritas is now) then turned left until they reached a messenger services branch. That strip, which was slightly across from the San Roque slums, was somewhat deserted because there were no bus stops there at that time.

This was where Cesar and Teddy forced Oliver to hand over his money. When he put up a fight, Cesar and Teddy stabbed him. One of them had an ice pick, the other a beinte nueve (a size-29 fan knife).

Cesar remembered plunging his weapon twice into Oliver. “We later learned that he had six stab wounds,” he told me, “and one was close to the heart.” Oliver was left bleeding on the pavement and died almost instantly. The two confessed killers said they threw their bladed weapons into a canal, split their earnings, called it a day, and went their separate ways.

It was murder at high noon. It took the cops only two days to find Cesar and Teddy who then tearfully confessed to the crime on live TV.

I wrote a long two-part front-page series on the two young offenders, aged 16 and 20 at that time, their growing-up years, their families and the place where they lived. How they killed, why they killed. When I met them, both were wearing T-shirts marked with the words “Compliments of the Guillotine Club.”

Cesar told me that he realized the gravity of what happened when the effect of the drugs they used had worn off. So, did they remember anything? I asked. Was Oliver’s body soft? Did the weapons go in softly, slowly? Did they hear Oliver plead, moan, cry? Did they see the look on his face? Did they see the blood? Did they look around before they ran away?

I tracked down the mothers of Teddy and Cesar in the San Roque slums, a filthy, congested, overpopulated place that is still there today. Finding the two boys’ “homes” was a feat and getting their mothers to speak was a challenge. I wanted to find out how the murderous streak developed, how San Roque spawned boys who would kill a young, bright scholar who was just having lunch.

San Roque is not an easy place to enter. If not for the residents’ help, I wouldn’t have found my way out of there.

Unlike many urban slum areas, San Roque is right smack in the middle of a sprawling business district where shopping malls, condominiums and commercial buildings continue to rise. Many times the squatter colony faced the threat of demolition, and every time the residents put up a fight.

In 1996, a “no names, no photographs” policy on minor offenders was not yet in place. So here I am now, looking at Teddy and Cesar’s photo on the Inquirer front page, wondering where they are, how they are. I surely want to meet them again after they have served their sentence. Teddy, being a minor then, must have been sent to youth rehab.

I am also looking at the school photo of Oliver Ang, which the Inquirer used. He was an only child. Sixteen years after his death, how is his family? I remember his father, so overcome with grief, speaking of his son, so brilliant and so promising. Oliver was a math wiz. He would have been 30 years old now, perhaps a Pinoy Steven Hawking in the making.

I bring up this story, 16 years after it happened, because of the recent disturbing incidents on Edsa which involved the so-called “batang hamog” who figured in windshield-smashing, snatching and other petty crimes against commuters and drivers. They are not pure like the morning dew, as the moniker might suggest. The perpetrators are getting younger and getting away with their crimes because of their age. The enraged, helpless victims who strike back have to face the human rights commission for child abuse.

On rainy days, they clamber up the hoods of vehicles to clean windshields. They peek through the glass window to check out the insides of your vehicle. You have to make sure your doors are locked and your valuables are out of sight.

In scarlet velvet robes

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

The senator-judges’ fashion statement is loud and clear. They wear scarlet velvet robes meant to inspire respect and awe among those who watch them do their job as judges in the ongoing impeachment trial of Chief Justice Renato Corona. They have to have that kagalanggalang (respectable, dignified, distinguished) look that would set them apart from the rest of us. They are to be called “Your Honors” or “The Honorable” so and so.

In December last year when the senator-judges posed for their first official photograph that became a banner photo of the Inquirer, the robes they were wearing were fire-engine red. (Did the designer do some basic research on the history of this judicial costume?) The senator-judges did not seem happy with the color and cut. Harsh on the eyes and baduy, if you ask me. And so all the judicial robes, as they are called, were promptly changed.

When the senator-judges solemnly emerged at the impeachment trial for the first session in January, they had on them a certain sheen. The robes were velvet this time, and the color was not just any red, it was on the dark side of red. The color was scarlet or crimson which is the color of the sky at sundown. Those scarlet robes the senator-judges now continue to wear. The color is not the faded scarlet of the masa in T-shirts – they with the trembling hopes and shattered dreams, they who fling themselves on the Poong Hesus Nazareno of Quiapo. The senator-judges’ velvety scarlet suggests royalty, pomp and pageantry. It conjures up biblical themes and reminds about the glory of sacrifice and martyrdom.

And so every time the senator-judges glide into the courtroom day after day, week after week, we, with our mouths agape, wait with great expectation, eager to be confounded by some inspiring salutary moments the senator-judges might provide. Or be dazzled by the brilliance of their utterances.

But what did we get from the impeachment court during the last several sessions? Foul froth in the mouth, venomous saliva and obnoxious behavior that would shock even the shock jocks.

Call it synchronicity or what, but when Senator-Judge Jinggoy Estrada singled out prosecution lawyer Vitaliano Aguirre II whom he saw covering his ears in his little corner while Senator-Judge Miriam Santiago was perorating, ululating and bashing the prosecution lawyers (for the nth time), I knew at once that something – bad or good – would come to pass.

In street-corner Pinoy-ese, naghalo ang balat sa tinalupan. In the French and English language we might call it a denouement, albeit in a plot’s midstream. It was a defining moment we will not forget.

Defining because what happened defined and revealed many things to us. Not about the man on trial, not about the prosecution or the defense, but what was under those judicial robes. For many that I have spoken to, the shocking thing was not just Santiago’s verbal acrobatics and paroxysms, it was also the feebleness of the senator-judges to restrain (not publicly, of course) one of their own.

It was Santiago herself who had said sometime back that if all the TV cameras were removed from the courtroom, the impeachment trial would be finished in no time. Meaning that there would be no playing to the gallery on the part of the parties involved, no grandstanding. And yet it was she who has been hogging the limelight for many days – as legal lecturer par excellence, shock jock and screaming banshee rolled into one.

This is not to say that Santiago was all bluster and blah-blah. She had indeed strong points to get across to the uninitiated and especially to the prosecution guys who are often lost in the woods. In fairness to the prosecution, they have been bravely and humbly taking it on the chin, until…

Alas, what brilliance Santiago’s points might have, has been darkened by the bats in her belfry. And for many who have been watching the trial on TV or in the Senate, Santiago’s coequals appear to be either terrified of her or cozying up to her, or they don’t care about the sensibilities of the public at all. Their office is sacrosanct and beyond reach to us, the hoi polloi.

Or they have this covenant to look out for one another or look the other way (play deaf) when something like Santiago’s tsunami of words assault our ears. We all saw how Senator-Judge Pia Cayetano moved with lightning speed for the censure of Aguirre. The haste.

Called to explain, Aguirre could have gotten away by saying he was suffering from a chronic ear ache, that he did not mean to be disrespectful. Instead he said what many of us were dying to say – that respect begets respect.

Aguirre was ready to be detained. After yesterday’s caucus, presiding judge, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile announced that Aguirre will be given only a verbal reprimand.

Santiago, by the way, is due to take her oath (tomorrow, March 9, I was told) as one of the new member-judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague. But she reportedly wants to finish the impeachment trial. An officer of the Philippine coalition that had lobbied hard for the Philippines to ratify the ICC’s Rome Statute told me that it was the Department of Foreign Affairs that nominated Santiago. The coalition does not nominate.

Here’s hoping that the ICC would get a jolt from Santiago’s participation, and that the despots, tyrants and terrorists accused of crimes against humanity would get their just desserts from her.

With due respect, I present (arrrrg!) commonly mispronounced words at the hearings, even on TV: honorable, circumstances, category, organization, testimony, precedence, applicable, cemetery.

I rest my case.

Empowering women to fight hunger

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

March being Women’s Month, it behooves us to celebrate the efforts of the women who are actually and busily working on the ground to produce food for the world. They touch, dig and caress the earth to make it yield flower and fruit. They are a class all their own. They are the unsung heroines who have gone beyond rocking the cradle. They work from seeding time to harvest time, from the rising of the sun to its setting.

Fecundity becomes them. They are key to food security.

From the International Food Policy and Research Institute (IFPRI) comes the good news on the launching of the “groundbreaking index” to empower women to fight hunger. The “Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index” (WEAI) is a first. It is “the first measure to directly capture women’s empowerment and inclusion levels in the agricultural sector.”

The WEAI focuses on five areas: decisions over agricultural production, power over productive resources such as land and livestock, decisions over income, leadership in the community, and time use. Women who have adequate achievements in four of five areas would be considered “empowered.” The Index also takes into consideration the empowerment of the women as compared with the men in the same household.

The Index is being piloted in three countries—Bangladesh, Guatemala and Uganda—which have diverse socioeconomic and cultural contexts and will track the change in women’s empowerment that occurs as a direct result of the US’ Feed the Future initiative to address global hunger and food security. The Index will be used for performance monitoring and impact evaluations across Feed the Future focus countries.

The Philippines is not included in the Index. But a Philippine NGO was ahead in this department.

Some years ago Centro Saka Inc. (CSI) did a study of women in agriculture in the Philippines.  CSI had observed then: “The exclusion of women food producers from official statistics and industry profiles means that they are likewise invisible in rural development processes.”

CSI published “Who are the Women in Agriculture?”  by Maria Daryl L. Leyesa in its 2008 Rural Development Review. The CSI study answered the question, “How empowered are the women in agriculture?”

There are statistics and graphs galore, but the human side is revealed in the women’s answers to questions that are close to home. Among the interesting findings were about gender issues and the women’s aspirations—for the self, family, farm, community and nation.

“The women explained that the high rates of participation in decision-making could be attributed to the fact that often the task of deciding is being delegated to them by the men in the households. In the women’s words, ‘iniaatas ng aming asawa’ (it is being delegated to us by our husbands). And there are varying motivations on the women’s part to ‘accept’ the task and responsibility. One of the motivations identified was the stereotypical role of women as household financial managers. This role has often been equated with women’s empowerment in the household, but in the context of poverty and scarcity, such a role can be problematic rather than emancipatory.”

The CSI study explained that during times of scarcity, the highly male-dominated relations between men and women undergo changes. “These changes coincide with survival strategies often employed by the women that could result in a combination of women’s dependence on and autonomy from the men. Such autonomy, however, can be considered as mere small areas of freedom but not necessarily freedom from oppressive structures related to gender or class.”

The CSI study hoped to prompt government and development stakeholders “to review their mechanisms in involving women as individual players in agriculture and rural development.”

WEAI’s new survey findings should complement CSI’s. For example, having money or being educated does not guarantee that women are empowered. IFPRI senior research fellow Dr. Agnes Quisumbing said: “Identifying gaps in empowerment is especially useful for designing interventions that are appropriate in terms of context and culture.”

Already WEAI has some surprising findings:  A sample from the Western Highlands of Guatemala showed that wealth is a poor indicator of empowerment—three quarters of women in the wealthiest two-thirds of the population are not yet empowered. The southern Bangladesh sample showed that more than half of the women are less empowered than the men with whom they share the same house, yet they are usually confident speaking public. A sample from rural parts of Uganda showed that lack of control over resources and time burdens contribute most to the disempowerment of women.

Last year, I wrote a magazine feature article about women food producers who were paired with celebrity chefs at Oxfam-Philippines’ “The Good Food Lunch.” The lunch was not just a culinary event, it was a mind-opener that stressed the importance of growing food the right way, in the right places and by the right people (the empowered women who farm). It was about food justice in a world with limits.

There are solutions to the grim food scenario, it was stressed. Women are a big part of the solution. If only more women are empowered—truly and decidedly. Life givers and nurturers, they rock the cradle and the world and are key to feeding a hungry planet.#

'Medicare portability' for Fil-Ams

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

It is supposed to be a win-win situation, with both the United States and the Philippine governments benefiting from it, but most of all, the Filipino-American Medicare beneficiaries who have contributed heard-earned money.

Many Fil-Am retirees, medical professionals and advocates in the US have joined the “US Medicare in the Philippines Campaign” to convince the US Congress and President Barack Obama to allow Medicare coverage in the Philippines. They are lobbying for the passage of the US Medicare Portability bill. Their campaign cry: “Bring Medicare Home! You earned it!”

If during your entire career you had contributed to a government health insurance fund and upon retirement you want to avail of medical care, wouldn’t you want to choose where to go? The land of their birth is the first choice of many Fil-Ams.

According to proponents of the Medicare Portability bill, Fil-Am immigrant professionals are retiring at the rate of 100 per day. They are part of the daily “tsunami” of 10,000 baby boomers who are reaching 65 years of age. Under US law, they can take their Social Security pensions anywhere in the world, but their Medicare coverage, unlike private medical insurance coverage, cannot be applied abroad, not even to their homeland where they are also citizens.

There is a tinge of hurt when they say, “Hundreds of thousands of Filipino doctors, nurses, medical professionals, teachers and workers immigrated in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s upon the invitation of US medical and educational institutions and businesses to fulfill the needs of the American people. With decades of work they have paid into Medicare, they deserve portability of benefits at internationally accredited hospitals and care providers in the country of their birth.”

This will not be a drain on the US budget, they argue, but will in fact be a part of the solution to the worsening budget crisis. Here’s how: “The current annual cost per beneficiary is US$11,743. We estimate that taxpayers will save at least US$5,000 per year for each Filipino-American senior who chooses to return to his/her country of birth and avail of quality health care there.

“With this estimate of cost savings, if 200,000 retirees choose to reside in the Philippines, the Medicare savings would be US$1 billion per year. This dramatic savings could help meet our US government’s investments in job creation, education, infrastructure and small businesses, or reduce the budget deficit.” Health care in the Philippines is comparably cheaper.

The goal in 2010 is a change in the US law that would allow—for a start—for three demonstration hospitals in the Philippines that meet international standards to be reimbursed after Medicare beneficiaries are treated there.

This is far from saying that medical care in the US is inferior. Many wealthy Filipinos with health problems go to the US for treatment. What is clearly unsaid—and this makes me smile—is that many Fil-Am retirees feel and think they would live happier, healthier and longer lives in “Philippines, my Philippines.” The Department of Tourism’s “It’s more fun in the Philippines” campaign and its medical tourism program should get a boost from this.

Three days ago I spoke with Eric Lachica, a prominent Fil-Am registered lobbyist and organizer of US Medicare Philippines (www.USMedicarePH.org), a non-profit advocacy group based in Washington DC. Lachica spent years helping Fil-Ams get their due. A political science graduate of the University of Southern California and a son of a Fil-Am World War II veteran, Lachica worked 17 years for the passage of the Fil-Am Veterans Equity Bill that resulted in the 2010 release of $300 million for Fil-Am vets and their families.

The Medicare Portability bill lobbyist has been meeting with government officials in the US and the Philippines, President Aquino among them. Last November Lachica was invited to the Veterans Day Breakfast with President Obama at the White House.

According to Lachica the campaign has been making progress with P-Noy and Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario. He said that last January the President announced that he will discuss the issue with President Obama in their June meeting.

Philippine hospitals that have signed up as partners are The Medical City, Cebu’s Chong Hua Hospital and Cebu Doctors Hopital. There are ongoing negotiations with Ayala Land, St. Luke’s Hospital, Makati Medical Center and Cardinal Santos Hospital.

Last week Lachica was in Guam to meet with Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo who will be introducing a bill for Medicare coverage for in-patient hospital services in the Philippines.

On the Philippine side, we should be ready for this happy “tsunami” of retirees who are expected to experience first-class health care. Filipino caregiving is first-class and personal. Our tertiary hospitals have state-of-the-art facilities and medical experts galore. Unknown to many, foreigners are coming to seek treatment here and also enjoy the sights and sounds.

Hospices, retirement and nursing homes are still few on the Philippine landscape. But I’ve visited one that caters mainly to Japanese retirees and I liked what I saw. There should be more of this kind.

Not all of our nursing graduates can be absorbed abroad. Not all of them are raring to toil on foreign soil if they can help it. I believe that the Philippines has a lot to offer to fellow Filipinos who have left family, friends and village to seek greener pastures. And who now want to come home to the bosom of the land they love, to bask in its golden sun, to gaze at its blue seas and skies and the verdant hills beyond.

Welcome home.

Breaking the culture of silence, deafness

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

Speaking at a Vatican gathering, newly installed Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio “Chito” Tagle delivered his opening salvo thus: “The so-called crisis of the clergy unfolding these past years is immense in scope. It includes allegations of sexual misconduct, suspicions about the clergy’s handling of money, accusations of misuse of authority, inappropriate lifestyle and a host of other things. The faithful are appalled at the rudeness of their pastors. Priests who do not preach well or do not preside at sacraments religiously cause scandal as well. So when we refer to the crisis in the Church related to the clergy, we are dealing with a multi-faceted reality.”

There was reason to rejoice when the charismatic and hugely popular Tagle was called to Rome to speak at last week’s conference that tackled sexual abuse committed by priests against women and children.

Tagle delivered his talk, “Clergy Sexual Misconduct: Some Reflections from Asia,” before priests and bishops from 110 dioceses and religious from all over the world. They were expected to make guidelines on how to investigate allegations of abuses, help the victims and keep abusers out of the priesthood. A May 2012 deadline was set. This was a response to the scandals and exposés worldwide that rocked the Catholic Church.

Tagle gave an Asian perspective. He described how abuses committed by the clergy have been kept in the dark in a culture that regards sexual abuse victims as a cause for shame even while the abusers remain protected and continue their practices with impunity.

Tagle pointed to several aspects of the crisis generated by the clergy’s sexual misconduct: the personal/relational, cultural, ecclesiastical, legal, pastoral/spiritual and the media.

He explained that in Philippine culture, priests are usually regarded as family members and as more than ordinary humans. Filipinos are an affectionate lot, he added. “Because the culture clouds over the clergy’s humanity, some of them hide their true selves and lead double lives. Duplicity can breed abusive tendencies… What boundaries should we set to prevent expressions of affections from becoming tools of abuse?”

Tagle explained the ecclesiastical aspect thus: “When a cleric transgresses, even if the action is not criminal in the civil forum, ecclesiastical vows or promises are violated… A case in point is celibacy. A fuller and more just understanding should situate it within the Church’s rich spiritual, pastoral and canonical tradition. The crisis has impelled us to understand again the promise to remain celibate and lead a chaste life…

“Many people think that celibacy is simply a rule that the conservative Church has to observe for the sake of tradition. Some make it the culprit for all types of sexual misconduct. Others defend it but in a narrowly legalistic way that proves ineffectual.”

Tagle presented the Philippine Church’s pastoral responses to allegations of sexual misconduct, among them, pastoral care and even restitution for the victims and their families.

Asked Tagle, “How do we handle communities whose trust in their priests have been violated? Changing pastors is not enough. We should find an effective way of allowing people to voice hurts, to grieve, to understand, to forgive and to move on in hope. The Asian propensity to quickly restore ‘harmony’ often makes us believe that healing has already occurred when it really has not.”

And the offender? “The offender is usually lost, confused and shamed. He needs help, especially from experts, to understand and evaluate his situation. The priest can discover whether he has the capacity for celibate living. Some decisions have to be made.”

The archbishop happily noted that many priests, religious women and men and laypersons in Asia have been preparing themselves professionally to be of help to clergy with special needs. The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines now operates the St. John Marie Vianney-Galilee Center for Priestly Renewal to offer various programs, among them, pastoral care of priests with problems.

The non-offending clergy who feel lost, shamed and confused also need care. Just as important is the pastoral care of superiors and bishops who have to act as both carers and judge. Many have been accused of covering up or playing deaf. “Experience has taught us that inaction, mere geographic transfer of priests and insensitivity to the victims compromise the integrity of the religious superior or bishop.” Tagle commended the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences’ Office of the Clergy for the programs that equip bishops of Asia to handle sensitive cases.

And lastly, seminary formation and ongoing formation for priests must examine the roots of the crisis in the context of Asian realities. “Because of the specific crisis we are facing,” Tagle stressed, “we need to revitalize the community life of priests, common prayer, sharing of resources, spiritual direction, simplicity of lifestyle, and academic renewal among other things.”

I have reviewed the book “That She May Dance Again: Rising from pain of violence against women in the Philippine Catholic Church” (2011) authored by Sr. Nila Bermisa, a Maryknoll Sister, and published by the Women and Gender Commission of the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines.

The book should be read by those who serve in the Church so that they may see the painful realities and understand the root, history and dynamics of the experiences that many women have suffered in secret.

The book’s opening lines: “To become an interruption, perhaps a prophet to the Church hierarchy that for so long has denied women of equal dignity and full humanity.”

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OFWs stricken ill

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

Nanay Flor Tejada, for years an overseas Filipino worker in Hong Kong, lost her daughter Armyn, also a Hong Kong OFW, to breast cancer in 2008. The following year, her other daughter, Nene, also a Hong Kong OFW, followed suit because of colon cancer. Both Armyn and Nene died in Hong Kong. After Nene’s passing, Nanay Flor went home to the Philippines to care for a son who was diagnosed to have liver cancer and eventually died. Not long after, Nanay Flor herself found out that she had lung cancer. She is now struggling to live and get healed.

Nanay Flor’s story is among the many stories in “running priest” Fr. Robert Reyes’ book “Buhay Ka: Struggles in Mortality, Glimpses of Eternity” that documents Hong Kong OFWs’ battle against cancer. The book was launched on Feb. 4, World Cancer Awareness Day and will soon be available at Popular Bookstore. Philippine Medical Association president Dr. Oscar Tinio wrote the foreword.

The stories in the book are not just about OFWs who were stricken ill and waged a battle against a dreaded disease in a place so far from home and loved ones. It is also about Filipinos caring for fellow Filipinos in difficult and extraordinary circumstances. And while work and disease are the common denominators for these OFWs, many of whom are domestic helpers, their cases and the nature of their battles are as varied as the lives they left behind in their home country.

Reyes who was assigned in Hong Kong for several years and who considered himself an OFW began his “street ministry” in Hong Kong by organizing a band of OFWs who called their group Lakbay Lingap. Writes Reyes, “Every Sunday, sometimes Saturday, we would meet and walk to the various meeting places of the thousands of OFWs… Every other OFW we met seemed enclosed and even imprisoned by their story of loss.” Thoughts of an unfaithful husband, children in trouble and debts at home plagued them. “And then there were those whose health have suffered a serious downturn, those who have been diagnosed to have cancer.

“After the streets, members of Lakbay Lingap began visiting hospitals. It was there that we met Lydia Bartolome who allowed us to journey with her and led us to others like her. I was not familiar with the hospitals of Hong Kong. Soon we were visiting Queen Mary Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital, Pamela Eudes Hospital and so many other hospitals that hid so many of those who were hailed at home as heroes. What kind of heroes were they now that they were sick?

“Thank God, their employment in Hong Kong included medical insurance, but only while they were employed. As soon as a worker is terminated, and unless she finds another employer, in two weeks she has to leave Hong Kong lest she be penalized for overstaying.”

It was during his meetings with the ailing OFWs that the priest often heard the lamentation, “Mamamatay ako.” (I am going to die.) And so he would often hear himself counter with, “Pero buhay ka pa ngayon. Sabihin mo nga, buhay na buhay ako.” (But you are still alive. Say, I am very much alive.” And so the name “Buhay Ka” was adopted for the group of OFWs who were battling cancer and other ailments.

Included in Reyes’ book are the reflections of Melina Lagarbe, Buhay Ka coordinator. She says, “Today, Buhay Ka-Hong Kong is one of the richest Filipino communities (here), not because of money but mainly because we are blessed with all the beautiful, special, wonderful, triumphant and defining moments… Despite our busy schedules as domestic helpers, we still manage to do something for others.” But she says she also must deal with the patients’ doubts and fear of the unknown.

“Buhay Ka” the book is like a scrapbook, a compilation of reflections in both English and Filipino, first-person accounts, letters, interviews and photographs. Sure, it needs some good editing, but the individual stories, complete with names and faces, are so real one will just have to ignore the lapses and the book format.

Some of the first-person accounts were written when the OFWs were undergoing treatment. Having lost their hair to chemotherapy, many are shown wearing bandanas in photographs, but smiling broadly with their fellow OFWs who had cared for them. Not a few lost the battle but not before realizing their worth and experiencing the love and care of their compatriots and even strangers in a place that was not their home. Compassionate employers who went the extra mile deserve special mention.

There were those who survived cancer despite all the odds. For many, it all started with a “bukol sa dibdib” (a lump in the breast). One OFW went back to Hong Kong despite the adverse diagnosis and hid her condition from her employer. She needed to earn and see her daughter graduate. She worked for a while but when her employer decided not to renew her contract, she sought refuge in Buhay Ka which took care of her before and after her operation and until she was well again.

Caregivers blessed with good health and hearts have their stories, too. Who said OFWs are only concerned about their families back home, that all they do is slave away to earn? Many able-bodied OFWs have time and energy to spare to care for OFWs who are stricken ill.

Some of them have experienced kindness and are paying forward, so to speak. Others are driven by their religious faith and patriotic fervor. But there is no doubt that they have a deep well to draw from—because they are Filipinos. Father Reyes, a Hong Kong priest-OFW himself for several years, became one of them—a spiritual caregiver, accompanying many ailing OFWs in their healing journey and to the threshold of eternity.

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Cancer and medical tourism

Philippine Daily Inquirer/OPINION/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

While health and tourism officials as well as health institutions are doing their best to promote medical tourism in the Philippines by way of drawing foreign patients to avail of Filipino medical expertise, Chinese hospitals are beating them through aggressive advertising right in our own home ground. This is especially so in the cancer department. But this is getting ahead of the story.

The third week of January being national Cancer Consciousness Week and Feb. 4 being World Cancer Day, the Philippine Society of Medical Oncology (PSMO) recently held a press conference to brief the media on the national cancer situation and other related issues. PSMO’s campaign theme is “Fighting Cancer: Education, Prevention, Treatment.”

Founded in 1969, PSMO is a scientific, professional organization of medical oncologists (now numbering 146) committed to the advancement of the science and the ethical and holistic practice of medical oncology. This means active participation in national programs and campaigns to promote cancer awareness and safe practices in the field of medical oncology for optimal patient results.

The national picture is not pretty. Studies from 2008 to 2010 have shown a steady increase in cancer incidence. PSMO cited Globocan research estimates that in 2012, new cancer cases (in men and women) will be roughly 82,460. The top cancer sites in women include breast, cervix, uterus and lungs, while in men they are lungs, liver, colon/rectum and prostate.

The good news is that more advocacy groups are spreading cancer awareness. Said PSMO president Dr. Felycette Gay Lapus, “Every day is cancer consciousness day for us. We seek to arm the public with as much information as possible. Prevention is the ultimate goal, but if that can’t be achieved, it is important to get proper and safe treatment as early as possible.”

PSMO vice president Dr. Ellie May Villegas said that earlier detection and better treatment have resulted in decreased cancer deaths (18 percent) in the United States since the 1990s, reversing decades of increases. “Hopefully, the Philippines will follow suit,” she added.

Dr. Dennis Tudtud shared the latest research findings in occupation-related cancer. Unknown to many, there are carcinogenic chemicals in the work place that increase the risk of cancer.

An issue that came up in the press conference was the aggressive advertising of Chinese hospitals to entice Filipinos to be “medical tourists” in China. In the past months major dailies carried ads that boasted of new technologies and innovative treatment procedures for cancer patients in China. These ads even carried stories of individual patients (non-Filipinos) who purportedly benefited from the treatments.

Representatives of a Chinese hospital even go to schools with Chinese-Filipino population to do their promotion. Their target audiences are not the students but the Chinese-Filipino parents. This is according to a doctor (with Chinese ancestry) from a well-known Metro Manila hospital. Her daughter is a student in one of the schools visited by promoters.

This doctor happens to have experienced first-hand what going to one of these China hospitals was like. Her own brother who had lung cancer died within seven months despite assurances from the Chinese doctors that he was “95 percent cured.”

This doctor’s brother had undergone procedures here and in Singapore, chemotherapy among them, but these were not completed because, before she knew it, her brother and his family had decided that he should go to China for treatment. Despite doubts, the doctor did not get in the way of her brother’s desires. She had no clear idea what he was going through. All she was told was that her brother was getting better.

On the patient’s last trip to China things went awry. “I got a call. I spoke to a doctor who spoke broken English but we could hardly understand each other. I decided fast, got a visa and flew to China.” She was upset by what she saw.

“People at the airport were not familiar with the hospital even though its name rang a bell in the Philippines. Well, it was a building on what looked like Avenida Rizal, right close to the street. You should be able to imagine that. My brother was on the seventh floor where the well-off were supposed to be. While he was dying there was nothing attached to him, not even oxygen. He died 15 minutes after I arrived. The hospital had no morgue. He had to be brought to some place.”

And then there’s the issue of so-called radioactive seed implantation. Oncologists shared horror stories about patients coming home from China with the still radioactive seeds inside them. “Pity the airplane passenger sitting beside a radioactive patient,” said an oncologist who knew of such cases.

So why aren’t the Filipino oncologists, among the best in the world, and the state-of-the-art procedures in our five-star hospitals, not being aggressively promoted? They are medical tourism’s best kept secret. “We don’t have the funds,” Lapus lamented.

Book launch: On Feb. 4, “running priest” Fr. Robert Reyes will launch his book, “Buhay Ka: Struggles in Mortality, Glimpses of Eternity” that documents Hong Kong’s overseas Filipino workers’ (OFWs) battle against cancer. The venue is the St. Dominic Medical Center in Bacoor, Cavite where visiting Canadian doctors will present a new program and equipment for early cancer detection. Reyes’ book will be available at Popular Bookstore on T. Morato, Quezon City.

Reyes had accompanied many women OFWs on their journey towards healing and to the threshold of eternity.

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