TPLEX stays as is on / Chinese new year pays tribute to true doctor

LETTERS FROM THE AGNO

March L. Fianza

BAGUIO CITY -- Doctors come in many shapes, sizes and colors. But this one is different. Peter Ng, owner of Hotel Supreme in Baguio shares the observation of other members of the Baguio-Filipino – Chinese Community who described his friend Dr. Charles Martin Cheng, the multi-awardee doctor, as energetic and always looking for something to do voluntarily outside a lucrative medical practice.

In last week’s media briefing on the celebration of the Chinese Spring Festival 2015, hotelier Peter Ng requested a minute of prayer for Dr. Cheng, 81; who died due to complications on September 26, 2013. He said, the doctor opened ideas and began many activities for the Lunar New Year celebration in Baguio that involved Chinese residents in Benguet, officials from the Chinese Embassy and Mainland China.

Roland “ChongLoy” Wong, the Chinese philosopher from a Café in The Sky confirmed that while the Chinese celebrated the Lunar Year in their private domains since they settled in Baguio, the lowlands, Manila, Kapangan, Atok, Mankayan and many parts of the Philippines hundreds of years ago; Peter Ng said Dr. Cheng, book author and newspaper columnist was responsible in making the Chinese New Year celebration more known to the public by launching a dinner briefing many years ago that was attended by the press and the Baguio – Benguet Chinese.

The press briefing has now become a regular part of the Spring Festival that helped promote stronger ties between several Filipino-Chinese organizations and Baguio-Benguet communities. The Spring Festival is now an annual official event of the city government since it was declared in an ordinance, Mayor Morris Domogan said.

Dr. Cheng put up the Baguio Filipino-Chinese General Hospital in 1968, a private medical center that functioned more as a public hospital for poor farmers and their families, for patients who believe in traditional oriental treatment, and for people abroad who come for acupuncture and moxibustion.

But despite having a hospital, Dr. Cheng for decades still maintained a single-bed clinic under an old building on Dagohoy Street because it was within reach by common people moving around in a nearby bus station who might need medical attention anytime.

I was one out-patient who dropped by his clinic in that dilapidated building years ago. I can still remember him getting up from his chair, stretching out an arm for a handshake with his ever-present infectious smile as I enter the door. He was the only doctor who advised me to discontinue taking tabs prescribed by another doctor for my erratic blood pressure. Instead, he recommended drinking a glass of shredded celery every morning; a preparation that I will have to go back to one of these days. 

He told me stories about his patients who were relieved of their illnesses by acupuncture and herbal treatment, many of whom were not healed by conventional drugs. On the other hand, Peter Ng said that traditional Chinese medicines take long to administer but there are no side effects, while Western medicines are strong but have many side effects.

Outside the premises of the hospital, he researched on pesticide-induced cancer and other illnesses and the use of chemical inputs in farming resulting to birth defects which inspired some farmers to go organic.

Dr. Cheng was instrumental in organizing the City Aids Watch Council in 1987 and was a member to a number of civic organizations. Before his death, he supported amateur boxing by taking in street kids and out-of-school youth. When I asked why he was doing this, he said that little boys challenge each other to a boxing match for no reason but to fight, so that it was best that their talents were improved and made useful inside the boxing ring.

Atty. Cristeta Leung announced that Feb. 19, 2015 (Thursday) marked the beginning of the celebration of the Chinese New Year at the Bell Church compound at Km3, La Trinidad with a gift-giving program. I knew this as an annual activity since the church was built in the early 60s. The following day (Friday) at 1p.m., the colorful Chinese Dragon parade crawled down Session Road with the beating of gongs and drums. Mayor Domogan said, all classes on all levels were suspended in the afternoon of Friday. On Feb. 14 gifts were shared at the open gym of Barangay Bakakeng Central at 2 p.m.

This year’s Lunar New Year, according to Atty. Leung, is the Year of the Sheep. The sheep, goat and ram are gentle, calm and warm as their skin and fur were used as coat to protect them from the cold, she narrated.

But I also know that the sheep and goat are obedient followers to their leader. I observed this from a herd that moved around the property of the Diansons along Ambuclao Road in the late 60s. Although in the Philippines, we process animal skin into leather and wool, we love to raise them because they provide us meat for pinapaitan, kaldereta and kilawen.

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Benguet and Baguio got their first luck a couple of days after the launching of the Chinese Spring Festival on Feb. 9, 2015 when the Regional Development Council in the Cordillera passed a resolution in support of the original plan of the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway. DPWH Sec. Rogelio Singson, the Benguet Provincial Board, Benguet farmers, vegetable truckers and Benguet Congressman Ronald M. Cosalan earlier opposed a proposal to divert the original exit section from the Saytan, Rosario (La Union) to San Fabian.

The DPWH announced, that the original plan as supported by the RDC, is exactly what the agency planned to execute with a few revisions. Hopefully, that cements the end to the debate on whether it will be diverted some six to eight kilometers away from its original exit plan, if only to satisfy the whims of a former congressman in Pangasinan, along with some politicians based in Baguio who, of course, are motivated by veiled interests. 

Keng Hei Fat Say!