Widow seeks help for treatment of son’s grave ailment

By Ramon Dacawi

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- A widow whose monthly income is less than the monthly amount needed to keep her ailing son alive is knocking on Samaritans’ doors for support to sustain his life-time treatment for kidney failure.

As farm laborer at Alno, La Trinidad, Benguet, Rita Anuden receives between P2,000 to P3,000 a month, falling far short of the cost of keeping alive her 16-year old son Humphrey who has to undergo thrice-a-week hemodialysis in order to survive.

The boy, eldest of three children, has to pay at least P2,250 for each blood-cleansing session, or about P6,750 a week, presently being subsidized by Philhealth for a maximum of 90 sessions per year.

A three session per week, however, the boy has to have 156 treatments a year, or 66 more than the Philhealth allocation. The support is also whittled down each time the patient is hospitalized, equivalent to one per day of confinement.

A native of  Hungduan, Ifugao, Rita lost her husband, Majesty, in July 2009, make her the sole breadwinner as a farmhand.

Humphrey’s case was diagnosed last April after he was brought to the Baguio General Hospital and  Medical Center complaining of weakness and dizziness.

“His mother cannot sustain his thrice-a-week hemodialysis due to her irregular source of income,” social worker Charity Mabini noted in a report she made on the medical case.

People who can and want to help may ring up the patient’s cellphone number – 09500413043.

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Anonymous donor gives kidney patient new lease on life

By Ramon Dacawi

A fund support of P5,000 dialysis patient Martina Pacatiw Macario received last week will not stop her from sleeping –when she can – on a pew of the chapel of the Baguio General Hospital where she had found sanctuary in a determined move to save on costs and sustain her life-saving blood cleansing sessions she has to undergo for a life-time.

The amount coming from an unidentified Korean woman who coursed it through courier at the public market in La Trinidad, Benguet last Monday, is too precious to be used for transport fare and other needs outside dialysis.

The support triggers a retelling of Macario’s story – so she can thank the donor and for other would-be Samaritans to follow the anonymous donor’s act.  

Martina, a 50-year old native of Tadayan, Pudong, Kapangan, Benguet, is now on her third year of twice-a-week hemodialysis. In May, 2013, she was rushed to the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center where doctors told her her kidneys had totally failed.

Three years earlier, on May 29, 2010, she was released after serving 20 years and one week in prison.

She was sentenced after she was caught trying to sell marijuana in a vain effort to improve the living condition of her family.

“While client (was) serving her sentence, she made effort to send money to her children who (were) in the custody of her parentws in Kapangan,.” Noted social worker Charity Mabini in a report she made to help Martina look for support to her life-time dialysis.

“(Her) children have their own families already (and) can not extend their (sustained) support anymore to Martina since their income is not even enough (for) the needs ofthier families” Mabini added.

Martina eventually found alife-time partner from Tayug, Pangasinan where she goes home to when she could after her dialysis sessions here. She is hooked to the dialysis machine from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Mondays and from 11 a.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

The prohibitive costs of dialysis (P2,200 per session), forced her to sleep Monday and Tuesday evenings to save on travel costs while waiting for her treatment on Wednesdays.

Chances are Martina’s story would be told again, after another Samaritan reaches out to her and she asks if the support can be acknowledged through the local papers. She can be contacted through cellphone number 09994699940.

Also in financial distress, another woman-patient requested last week that her condition be also told, hoping Samaritans out there would also help her sustain her life-time dialysis.

Sixty two-year old Remedios Bagsao of Paoay, Atok, Benguet could hardly sustain her twice-a-week dialysis at the Benguet General Hospital in La Trinidad, Benguet.

The patient began her dialysis in June, 2013 and has exhausted the resources of her three children the past three years. The family’s financial condition took another blow when her husband died two years ago.

“It leaves me with no recourse but to seek help through your publication,” she said.

Samaritans may ring up her cellphone number 09395684672.

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The kindness of friends and strangers

BENCHWARMER

Ramon Dacawi 

BAGUIO CITY -- If not for the kindness of friends and strangers, I should be running on empty by now. The effects of diabetes have caught up with me, rendering me a slave to the dialysis machine the past two years for kidney failure.

My pro bono doctor,  nephrologist Josefina Luspian. advised a four-times-a-week dialysis treatment, if only to slow down the debilitating effects of having too much sugar in the blood. 

They include heart ailment, erratic blood pressure, failing eyesight and anemia.

Costs of dialysis, which has to be for a life-time (unless one undergoes kidney transplant, which is far more costly),  are staggering. Dialysis averages P2,500 per session, excluding the figures for maintenance medicine, injection to generate red blood corpuscles and occasional blood transfusion and hospital check-in.

The prohibitive costs led housewife Jane Garcia to go home for good  to  Mankayan, Benguet when she could no longer sustain the costs of twice-a-week blood-cleansing session at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center. She gave up and was buried in Bauko, Mt. Province, her hometown.

The 34-year old housewife left behind daughters Cathy Sy, who is suffering from epilepsy, and six-year old Princess Arcia, who is battling leukemia.

To top it all, her husband, miner Romeo, was also diagnosed for kidney failure. He learned this when he was hospitalized after he buried his wife.

The family’s plight is enough reason for me to stop hurling unanswered questions to the ceiling over my own predicament. Unlike Romeo, I have buddies, cockfighting aficionados who recently staged a cock derby, raising funds so I won’t have to be scrounging for the next payment for the four-hour blood-cleansing session.

Non-gamblers, non-bettors may frown, but I am deeply indebted to the cockfight aficionados led by barangay captain Edward Aclopen of Gibraltar Barangay who staged the derby to keep alive my chances of sustaining a medical procedure that has to be repeated again and again for a life-time.

I owe it to Tuba cockpit owner, former city councilor Antonio Tabora Jr. and the rest of the United Baguio-Benguet Breeders Association (U3BA) for mounting and supporting the fund drive.

Truth to tell, it is at the cockpit where you find honesty at its best. Aficionados are also used to throwing part of their bet money into the ring, for the relatives of a patient or somebody who just passed away, to pick up for the medicine or the funeral costs.

Purists or former bettors who now consider cockfighting no less than a vice may frown but the fact remains that it is in the cockpit where one finds instant support than perhaps anywhere else, except in charitable institutions.

I’m lucky, too, for having known other people who would now and then greet me on the sidewalk and then grip into my wrist some amount to help sustain my dialysis. These occasions leave me voiceless, trying to hold back tears.

“You don’t have to write about it,” one cock-fight enthusiast, a lawyer, told me last week. “But I have to,” I said. “Then you don’t have to identify all of us,” he advised.

Anonymity was what a Korean wanted when he or she advised a messenger last week to deliver her/his support of P5,000 to dialysis patient  Martina Pacatiw Macario..

Macario, a 57-year old mother of two, woke me up while I was attached to the machine last Monday. She was enthusiastic, telling how this stranger sent his/her support through emissary.

Among the many dialysis patients, Miriam stands out like miner Romeo Garcia, if only because of what she has been through and still has to undergo.

Originally from Tadayan, Pudong, Kapangan, Benguet, Macario spent 20 years of her life in prison for trying to make a quick buck peddling marijuana to government agents.

While serving her prison term, she tried to send money to her children who were in the custody of her parents in Kapangan. She thought misfortune was over after she was released from prison in June, 2010.

In May, 2013, however, she was diagnosed for end-stage renal failure and was advised to undergo thrice-a-week dialysis (Monday-Wednesday-Saturday) in order to survive.

To cut on costs, she sleeps on Monday evenings on a pew inside the chapel of the Baguio General Hospital and waits for her next dialysis on Wednesdays instead of commuting to Tayug Pangasinan.

Those who can help her may ring up her cellphone – 0999-469-9940.

Other Samaritans may reach out to Marie Joy Ligudon, at 14 the youngest dialysis patient at the BGHMC. The kid, for years now  under the care of her adoptive parent, Gina Epe, has just been out of the hospital for complications.

Samaritans may ring Epe’s cellphone number – 09198169234. As did former world karate champion Julian Chees, now head of the Julian Chees-Shoshin Kinderhilfe Foundation in Germany who recently sent 400 euros for the girl’s treatment.

Oss, Master Julian.

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Mom, 50 struggles to survive; seeks support for dialysis

By Ramon Dacawi 

BAGUIO CITY -- However you look at it, life is beautiful, and kidney patient Martina Pacatiw Macario continues to struggle to survive and live it the fullest.

Reason enough for her to ask this writer to feature her among the growing number of kidney failure patients asking that their stories be told, hoping a reader or two would reach out to help her cover the prohibitive costs of her thrice-a-week hemodialysis treatment in order to survive.

The 50-year old mother of five, originally from Tadayan, Pudong, Kapangan, Benguet, had squandered 20 years of her life in prison for trying to make a quick buck through sale of marijuana.

“I was released on June 29, 2010 after 20 years and one week in prison,” she recalled.

“While (she) was serving her sentence, she made effort to send money to her children who were then in the custody of her parents in Kapangan,”noted social worker Charity Mabini who made the social case study report.

In May, 2013, misfortune struck. She was rushed to a hospital and then to the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center where doctors found her kidneys had totally failed.

To survive, she is now on thrice-a-week hemodialysis at the medical center, from 6 p.m. to 10 pm, on Mondays and from 11 a.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

To cut on travel costs, she dozes off late Monday evenings while sitting on a pew of the medical center’s chapel for the next session Tuesday morning.

It would be expensive and tiresome for her to travel home to Tayug, Pangasinan where her husband lives and then return for Baguio for her next session on Wednesday.

“I’ve been used to this schedule,” the former inmate said.

All her children are now married and trying to raise their own families. “They cannot extend support anymore to Martina since their incomes are not even enough to meet the needs of their own families,” social worker Mabini said.

Notwithstanding what she had undergone and her present and pressing difficulties, the will to live pushes her on, reason enough for her to ask that her plight be also written about, hoping a Samaritan or two would reach out to her.

Those who can help Martina may ring up her cell phone number – 09994699940. –

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Dialysis patient badly needs fund for graft

By Ramon Dacawi 

BAGUIO CITY -- Given the continuing costs he has to cope with, dialysis patient Toriano Libis is left with no choice but to seek out Samaritans out there to improve his chances for survival.

The plight of the 33-year old farmer from Taba-ao, Kapangan, Benguet was referred to this newsman by head nurse Carmen Bumatnong of the dialysis center of the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center.

“The hospital staff monitors the progress of each patient and are fully  aware on who is the most needy among them,” she said in recommending that Toriano’s case be given publicity, hoping Samaritans would come to his rescue.

Bumatnong said the patient had undergone arteriovenous creation for three times so that he could undergo continuous dialysis.

“For three times, his AVF fistula failed, and he now has to undergo dialysis through his vein and artery on the neck, which has to be temporary as the same is prone to infection,” Bumatnong explained.

“We had advised him go to the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Quezon City for the creation of an AV (arteriovenous) graft but the cost of the procedure is far beyond the family’s meager income,” Bumatnong said.

The cost for the procedure is P40,000, a fortune for an orphaned family of four whose immediate and continuing need is to sustain Toriano’s  twice-a-week hemodialysis treatment.

Those who can and are willing to pool resources to raise the cost of Toriano’s may call his mother Lily’s  cellphone number – 0939-775-8271/ They may also ring up 09167778103, this writer’s number.  

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Igorot world ex- karateka champ continues mission

By Ramon Dacawi 

BAGUIO CITY -- Financial support to three patients at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center marked the latest humanitarian homecoming here of former world karate champion Julian Chees.

While here on a twice-a-year homecoming last April, Chees was guided by social worker Rhea Tabor of the BGHMC in extending a total of P20,000 worth of medicines to the three patients confined at the medical center.

Support of P10,000 was extended to four-month old Emmanuel dela Cruz of Sta. Maria, Alfonso Lista, Ifugao who was confined for brain abscess formation.

Support of P7,000 was given for seven-year old Sarah Dulce Bautista, a seven-year old girl from St. Patrick, San Carlos Heights, Baguio City who was confined at the pediatric intensive care unit for cerebral palsy, epilepsy and hepatic encephalopathy.

Since January this year, Chees, a former member of the German National Karate Team and now a respected instructor of the Japan Karate Association of Germany, used up P155,194. 60 as support to patients in the Cordillera.

From last December, Chees extended medical support of P50,000 for the eye operation of Gaspar Kawaren of Bontoc, Mt. Province; P10,000 to dialysis patient Romeo Garcia of Mankayan, Benguet; P20,000 to Marilou Pakias; and P2,314.35 to the Kawaren family of Bontoc, Mt. Province.

The former world champion in kata also used up P25,000 for a village parachute for Maligcong Villa here in Baguio.

A native of Maligcong, Bontoc, Mt. Province, Chees was one of the outstanding students of the late Shihan Kunio Sasaki who established the JKA in the Philippines and Edgar Kapawen Sr., chief instructor of the JKA chapter based at the YMCA of Baguio.

In keeping with the tenets of his discipline, the Igorot karateka established over 10 years ago Shoshin Kinderhilfe, a humanitarian foundation based in Germany extending support to the needy in his native Cordillera region.

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Patient losing eyesight; one faces vein clogging

By Ramon Dacawi

A life-time of hemodialysis continues to financially squeeze patients and their families  dry, leading them and their  distraught  kin to hurling unanswered questions to the sky.

                 At their wits’ end over how to check complications from their common affliction, two patients and their relatives  last week requested publication  of their plight, praying readers would respond to their appeal for help.

For Samaritans wanting to flesh out the spirit of sharing as the radio begins spinning the carols of the upcoming season , two patients are just a call away:  Guigeon Falingchan Tumingeb, 39 and going blind,  and Marcelino Salvador, 53 and whose arm veins needed for dialysis are being obstructed and in danger of being totally occluded and useless.

Tumingeb, a native of Tocucan, Bontoc, Mt. Province and father of two, was told he would need about P20,000 to remove a cataract that has dimmed his vision for sometime now.

“We have nowhere to go for help, having exhausted the kindness of friends and kin over the years that my husband could not work because of his ailment,” Guigeon’s wife Vanessa, 40, said.

Over the years, Vanessa had knocked on the doors of government officials and agencies in Northern Luzon  for help. Such sacrifice enabled her husband to survive since his ailment was diagnosed in 2007.

                 Like many other such cases, Guigeon, unable to accept his illness,  delayed undergoing dialysis which, his wife remembered , started in 2012.

“He will have completed five years of surviving on dialysis this coming January,” Vanessa said as if it would be a joyous anniversary of sorts.

They have gone this far in a continuing struggle to keep the family whole.

Vanessa said Guigeon needs to have his sight saved so he can continue seeing his children – Shydel, 17, and Eduard Shem, 15 - grow.

Over in La Trinidad, Benguet, Marcelino’s wife Martina, is also at a loss on how to raise P20,000 for an operation to save his arm veins which are in danger of being occluded, threatening disuse of the “fistula” that was created on the arm to allow the cleansing of the patient’s blood through dialysis.

Closure of the veins now threatened by clogging would mean another operation to create another fistula to enable the patient to continue dialysis.

Salvador, father of three sons and a daughter, has been on dialysis since April last year after he was diagnosed for Stage 5 kidney failure.

“The family’s only source of income is from the daily wage of Martina as a farm laborer in Buguias, Benguet,” noted social worker Melanie Sahoy of La Benguet.

Marcelino, a carpenter sidelined by his illness,  traces his roots to Tadian, Mt. Province and Kibungan, Benguet, while his wife is a native of Bekes, Taneg, Mankayan, Benguet.

People who want to  reach out to Tumingeb may ring up cellphone number 09099692481 while those who can extend support to Marcelino can call up his wife’s  cellphone number  09292957111. – Ramon Dacawi.

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Ailing girl, 12, needs support to survive

BENCHWARMER

Ramon S. Dacawi

Once in a while, a story comes along that needs to be told- and retold - for the virtue it radiates.

One such story revolves around Marie Joy Manojil Ligudon, a 12-year old girl from Ifugao who has become the youngest  among a steadily growing number of kidney patients  undergoing  hemodialysis treatment  at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center.

Thanks to an Ibaloi family from Kabayan, Benguet, Marie Joy, fourth of five children of a marginal farmer-couple in Aguinaldo town, has gone this far in her expensive twice-a-week dialysis for kidney failure that has to be sustained for a life-time, unless she undergoes kidney transplant.

The kid’s struggle for survival began in April, 2003 when she was brought to the hospital by Aguinaldo town mayor Gaspar Chiilagan  for treatment of urinary tract infection.

Her adoptive mother, Gina Epe, recalled she and her twin daughters - Jordynne  and Lordynne - met the kid in the isolation room of the BGHMC when they visited a sick relative, Lilibeth Epe, who was then  undergoing chemotherapy.

“ My daughters overheard the nurse asking  the kid’s father several times why Mary Joy’s prescription medicines had not been bought,” she recalled.

‘My twins asked me for an amount  for the medicines they bought after  the kid’s dad, Johnson Ligudon, admitted he had no cash and had no relatives here to borrow money from.”

With help from friends and officials like then Benguet barangay councils’ president Bernard Waclin, Epe’s family supported the girl’s healing.

“For two months, my daughters were bringing packed meals daily to the girl everyday before going to school at the University of the Cordillera,” Epe said.

When the girl was about to be released, her father asked if they could leave her to the care of Epe’s family as he could not cope with the expense should her illness recur.

Under her adoptive family’s care, the kid underwent regular check-ups for nephrotic syndrome. Last May, she was diagnosed for end-stage renal failure that more than doubled the  financial stake and care needed  for her survival and chance to grow up.  

Since then, the girl has been undergoing twice or thrice-a-week hemodialysis . Since then, the financial pressure has been mounting, forcing the kid’s adoptive mother to knock on doors for help.

“My twin daughters are now grown-ups and we depend on their support from Australia where they now work as nurse and accountant for their kid sister’s survival,” Epe said.

At two times dialysis per week aside from the cost of maintenance medicines, the girl needs over P10,000 a month, a figure hard to come by and sustain even by overseas workers.

Gina, who operates a jeep ferrying  mountain trekkers to foot of Mt. Pulag in Kabayan town,  and her husband Brando,  a teacher in Bokod, Benguet, had been left with no choice but to knock on doors of Samaritans.

“Mountain trekkers and guides heard of the kid’s predicament and are proposing a climb-for-Marie Joy,” Gina said.

Meanwhile, people who can help may course their support may foot the bill for a  treatment session costing an average of P2,200 at the BGHMC cashier’s office in the name of the  kid  and presenting the receipt to the BGHMC dialysis treatment staff.

For that arrangement, they can get in touch with dialysis center nurse Carmen Bumatnong  (cell phone  09155368289) or BGHMC social worker Nora Mangusan (CP 09984651939).

Others can call up Epe, through CP No. 09198169234. or visit the kid during her four-hour blood-cleansing sessions set every Wednesday and Saturday  from 7:00 a.m.  to 11 a.m.

Many of those who got  wind of the heavy  financial, and emotional difficulties  Marie Joy, her natural and adoptive families are undergoing- wonder what inspires such fortitude.

“Perhaps it’s because of the fact that when I delivered my twins, I could not singlehandedly nurture my babies with my milk,” Epe recalls. “The hospital then, as it does now,  discouraged use of commercial infant formula.”

She was referring to the advocacy of the late Dr. Natividad Clavano who established  BGHMC as the pioneer advocate and world-wide model for immediate  breast-feeding and early mother-and-baby bonding and rooming-in.

“It was then that a woman from Ifugao, who also had just delivered her baby, offered and did feed my twins with her own breast-milk,”  she said. “Her kindness continues to inspire us to work to help Marie Joy grow up like a normal kid.”

“At her young age, her strong determination to survive had convinced me to (eventually) let her undergo kidney transplant, for which her father is willing to donate one of his kidneys.”                               

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Karateka fulfills annual humanitarian outreach

BENCHWARMER

Ramon S. Dacawi

BAGUIO CITY -- Coming home from Germany where he has been based for years now has become an annual humanitarian pilgrimage of sorts for former world karate champion Julian Chees who capped his latest visit last week by reaching out to patients in Mt. Province and at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center.

“Reaching out provides deeper meaning to my annual visit  home,” said Chees, a sixth dan blackbelt and native of Maligcong, Bontoc, Mt.Province  as he was led by a social worker to the beds of patients in need of support at the BGHMC.

Dolores Beniahan, chief of the hospital’s social welfare service, directed social workers Nora Mangusan and Rhea Tabor to pinpoint who among the charity cases were most needy based on their social case study reports.

The multi-titled martial artist first reached out  to 33-year old  patient Marites Laus who is undergoing regular  twice-a-week hemodialysis for kidney failure. Her husband was at the nursery looking after their daughter Francine Scarlet who was recently born prematurely and needed to stay at the infant intensive care unit.

The young mother was reimbursed P3,269.75 reflected in her expense receipts to help her cope with her next medical fund requirements.

Next were patients  Ric Alcantara who received  a cash support of P4,087 to help him cope with epilepsy and encephalopathy, seven-month old Ericka Ferrer  whose mother was reimbursed P2,466.30 spent for the child’s medication, and 27-year old Iris Dawn Plasabas who received medicines worth P8,580 to help her cope with her ailment diagnosed as “acquired hemolytic anemia”.  

Earlier, the 56-year old Chees was in Bontoc where he shouldered P43,000 worth of medicines for  patients in his home province..

Before returning to Germany, the Igorot martial artist paid P3,000 for the school fees of Cherry Ann Realina, a computer technology student. The girl was orphaned when her father, a security guard of the Baguio Water District, was killed several years ago when a pine tree fell during a typhoon while he was on duty at Baguio’s major water source.

Chees also handed over P7,000 to help another dialysis patient pay for his ‘mounting bills for dialysis.

“Reaching out to the sick gives deeper meaning to my annual  journey home,  as I know how it feels to be in need, having been born poor” Chees, a miner’s son who grew up in Lepanto Mines said.

The head of several Shotokan karate schools in West Germany under the Japan Karate Association, Chees over the years ruled numerous international karate tournaments, topped by his topping the individual kata event in the 1993 World Shotokan Championships in Saarsbrucken, Germany.

A student of JKA-YMCA of Baguio chief instructor Edgar Kapawen, Chees started making waves after his arrival in Germany as a civilian worker in a U.S. military facility, by ruling numerous kata (formal exercise) competitions in international competitions.

“The German national team took notice and offered me a slot, I concentrated on kata as I was handicapped for kumite (sparring event) because of my diminutive height,” the five-foot, three-inch tall fighter explained.

His annual reaching back for home was capped by his mission to typhoon-ravaged Tapaz and Dumalag towns in Capiz in the wake of super-typhoon Yolanda at the end of 2013 to distribute rice and cash worth over P800,000 which he and friends in Germany pulled together.

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BSU, Rotary Club give amputees new limbs

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- Benguet State University here, along with their partner, the Rotary Club, painted smiles on the faces of the less fortunate amputees dishing out more than 100 limbs last Monday at the University open gymnasium.

This was the culmination of the ‘Artificial Limbs Project’ (ALP) that started last year with signing of agreement between BSU and Rotary Club.

Measurements were taken last March 11-12 that was attended by 135 amputees not only from Cordillera but also from the neighboring provinces.

Felissa Pasayen of Bakun, Benguet now gets to stand and walk without the aid of her crutches. She was diagnosed with a rare disease caused by fresh eating bacteria which led to the amputation of her left leg at an early age.

“I first heard of the project from a friend” said Pasayen. Feeling agitated she bought a transistor radio where she waited patiently for the details of the said ALP to be announced. There, she was able to get a hold of the mobile number of Dr. Florence Poltic, one of the ALP coordinator and also the BSU Physician.

Pasayen plans to return back to her former employer in Manila and help her family financially once she will get familiarized with the mobility of her brand new prosthetic leg.

Another female beneficiary all the way from Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya voiced out her gratefulness for the said project as she  held back her tears.

She has been a life time user of artificial limbs and was long enduring her outdated artificial limbs which she had during her teens.

Meanwhile, BSU President Feliciano Calora said that this tie between BSU and the Rotary Club was just first step of yet a very long journey of service towards their needy patrons. He added that development should go parallel to both BSU and its target patrons mutually.

Parties involved in the said activity and MOA were Baboo  Kanan of the Rotary India, Linda Winter of Rotary Baguio, Dr. Florence Poltic and Dr. Jones Feleciano of BSU.

The activity also part of the Centennial Celebration of BSU which will culminate this September 2016.

The tie started 2015 during the stint of then University president, Dr. Ben Ladilad.

Benguet was their fourth destination for the year. They have been hoping from Laguna, Sariaya, Lipa in the first quarter of this year. For the coming months, they are set to proceed to Naga, Iriga, Vigan Makati and Caloocan. -- Rocky Ngalob

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Igorot karateka makes annual pilgrimage home

By Ramon Dacawi

In an annual humanitarian pilgrimage of sorts, former world karate champion Julian Chees has been coming home to the Cordillera to personally reach out to the sick and needy. 

Last December, the sixth-dan blackbelt of the Japan Karate Association was in Baguio and his native hometown of Bontoc, Mt. Province where he distributed toys and school supplies to kids and eased the financial burden of indigent patients.

“It’s the least a native son coming can do with the support of our martial arts students in Germany who annually pool stuffed lions and dolls and whatever they could, thereby giving substance to my coming home,” Chees said.

He recalled how his students led by Dr. Martina Thaller, Dr. Christiane Schmidt, Kirsten Petro and Arawasi Bottrop collected medicines, ballpens and toys to give substance to their teacher’s homecoming. 

With the help of his students, Chees was able to pool over P100,000 this year as fund support to patients here and at the Mt. Province General Hospital in Bontoc town.

“Our support is, of course, never enough, but it sure does give meaning to a native son’s coming home,”  Chees said. 

The biggest support from his Julian Chees-Shoshin Foundation came in wake of the devastation wrought by super-typhoon Yolanda at the end of 2013.

In the aftermath of the devastation, Chees personally distributed over P800,000 worth of rice and cash to typhoon victims in Dumalag and Tapaz towns in Capiz. 

As in his previous homecomings, Cheesupon arrival at the Manila Airport, called on his aging teacher, ShihanKunio Sasaki, the missionary master who, in the 1960s established the Japan Karate Association branches in Manila and in Baguio.

“Without Master Sasaki, I and many other Filipino practitioners of Shotokan karate would not be where they are now,” the student noted. 

Chees spent three years as assistant to Sasaki in the latter’s gym in Manila, an experience that prepared the Igorot student for his exposure in international competitions.

Chees eventually migrated to Germany where he was recruited as a member of the German national karate team. His stint with the squad proved fruitful as he kept on winning the kata event in international competitions. 

This string of victories in the international martial arts scene was capped by his topping the kata event in the 1993 World Shotokan Championships in Germany. 

“For that tournament, I would spend winter days in the forest perfecting the basic movements Master Sasaki taught and I was only too glad it paid off with that victory for the German national team which adopted me,” he recalled. 

“Wherever I am now, I owe it to Master Sasaki and to Master Edgar Kapawen Sr.,” he said, referring to his mentor and fellow Bontoc who heads the Northern Luzon headquarters of the JKA.

   

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Kidney patient appeals for help

Reaching Out

BAGUIO CITY – A mother left with no other recourse reiterated her appeal to Good Samaritans for help to sustain the lifetime dialysis treatment of his son.

Teresita Jacaban did not mind sounding importunate if only to get his son Junnerey’s plea re-published and have people respond to his plight.

“Kung pwede lang po paki-publish uli ang case ng anak ko.  Baka sakali po na may tumulong na sa kanya sa pagkakataong ito,” Teresita asked.

The 31-year old Junnerey’s story was first published last April after losing his treatment slot at the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC) dialysis center forcing him to transfer to a newly opened private facility where he had to fork out more money as the center, like any other private dialysis facilities, does not accept guaranty letters from government instrumentalities normally being tapped by cash-strapped patients.

Junnerey, a former factory worker at Adriste at the Baguio Export Processing Zone, was given back his slot at the BGHMC where he was able to avail anew of the assistance from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and the Congressman through the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).

But as it is, sustaining a thrice-a-week treatment remained burdensome with Teresita admitting she had nowhere else to turn to for help.

Those willing to help Junnerey may contact him through cell number 09309323012 or may see him at the BGHMC dialysis center or at his home at 37 Purok Magsaysay Loakan Proper. 

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Deadly diseases; good hearted people

BEHIND THE SCENES

Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY – It is a wonder how people, despite being on the verge of death  fighting for dear life, still find time to help others.

Take my neighbor Ramon Dacawi in this paper. If you read his columns and articles, you might think he is in the pink of health with his advocacies on health, environment, sports and helping needy and sick people.

Actually Ramon is in and out of hospitals most days since he has to be subjected to three dialysis sessions on a weekly basis. A dialysis session costs around P2.500. I saw him in his office last week with a tube stuck in his neck like an antenna. His staff (Ramon is the head of the city information office) told me the tube was where the blood would be drained out and replaced during dialysis.

                ***

That time, an old woman entered his office asking for money so she could have her dialysis session. Ramon gladly obliged. With his salary, I wondered how he could maintain his dialysis sessions and still give money to others suffering the same malady.

His office has become some sort of a welfare extension although it is in no way connected to the DSWD. Almost every day, people suffering from kidney, liver or heart ailments would see him for financial assistance. Some know his condition and when I talked to them, they told me they were desperate for medicines or dialysis but had no one to turn to. At times when he didn’t have money, the ones asking would leave with an angry face like he was an errant government conditional cash transfer or PCSO official.

                ***

Anyhow, friends like former world karate champ Julian Chees would often pitch in and send funds through Ramon for ill patients and Ramon would dutifully account the money with all the receipts and send it back to Julian or other donors.

Julian, a native of Maligcong, Bontoc, Mountain Province, knowing about the sad travails of sick people here, along with his students, formed a foundation in Germany where he is based now and would send money every now and then to patients.

I know also the goodness of heart of Julian because when he came to know (I guess through Ramon) I had to undergo a delicate eye operationor I would go blind last year, he immediately sent a sizable amount.

There are a lot of people who love to help people like this friend of ours from the BIR who would always donate money, but always telling his confidantes he would rather remain anonymous. The least his musician friends could do was to join or organize concerts-for-a-cause for patients to pitch in when some would ask. 

                ***

Anyway, during his younger days, Ramon had been some sort of an older brother to me and we would drink to our heart’s content with others in media watering holes in Baguio like the now defunct Dainty Restaurant and Luisa’s Café of Chong Loy which I think is the only surviving Chinese restaurant along Session Road.

A few years back, I told him I stopped eating pork and cut on sugar and salt intake due to fatty liver which has since subsided. When I told him about this, he said I was fortunate I had a head start unlike him who only stopped drinking and smoking too late when he was diagnosed with failing kidneys.

Some days, I still do drink due to pressure of the newspaper trade but I don’t take in the hard ones anymore like gin bulag, brandy, whisky or any of those poisons which could slowly shrink your insides.I usually drink nowadays Kung Fu, a brand of siok tong, a Chinese drink which is a tamer version of brandy.

(The drink was introduced to me by long-time musician friend Arsen    Marzan, jay kabsat ni Conrad idi pay laeng. Conrad by the way had also been one of the folk country pioneers of Baguio in the 70’s and 80’s and helped in many concerts for ill patients. He is now living the American Dream in California along with other Baguio musicians who migrated there like Richard Arandia and Bryan Aliping.)

                ***

Lest we digress, those days, one wouldn’t think Ramon’s kidneys were slowly being eaten up by the hard stuff later compounded by diabetes and hypertension. 

One time, I asked him during a journalism seminar organized by the regional office of the Dept. of Education what drink he would like to have after lunch. I added sugar to the drink since one time at the city hall canteen, he ordered coke. 

When I asked him why, he told me in his usual deadpan demeanor it would be flushed anyway during his dialysis session.

                ***

Anyway, these thoughts came to mind following a recent press conference of the regional Cordillera’s Health department wherein doctors advised people with hypertension and diabetes to manage their illnesses so their kidneys will not be damaged.

Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center dialysis unit head, Dr. Virginia Mangati, said hypertension and diabetes remain top causes (risk factors) of kidney failure in the region.

Mangati said there was increasing number of patients undergoing dialysis. At the BGHMC, she said there are around 250 patients on dialysis. Hospital records showed about 13 to 15 new cases per month.

She explained there were five stages of kidney disease. In stages one to three, kidneys can still be treated considerably. But at stage four and five, kidney transplants or continuous dialysis are the only ways to keep the patient alive.

                ***

As the health department advocated early detection and treatment, Mangati said their primary advocacy of prevention of any illness was through healthy lifestyle.She advised people with medical history of hypertension and diabetes to regularly take their maintenance medicine and monitor status of their kidneys.

Other kidney disease prevention tips Mangati shared:  overweight persons should start reducing weight so they can maintain ideal blood pressure and avoid hypertension; avoid too much consumption of pain relievers because these cause destruction of blood vessels and for people to have a healthy and balanced diet and do regular physical activities or exercise.

“To have healthy kidneys, one should monitor healthy diet and have a healthy lifestyle,” Mangati said.

June was declared National Kidney Month by virtue of Presidential Proclamation No. 184. For this year, DOH leads the observance with the theme "Batong inaalagaan, habangbuhay nating kayamanan," which aims to improve public awareness on health and prevention of kidney diseases.  (With a report from Wina Rosario, University of the Philippines Baguio student and intern of Philippine Information Agency)

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