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.
***
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.
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