Deaths and patients who need help

BEHIND THE SCENES
Alfred P. Dizon

BAGUIO CITY – How time flies. These past months, we have been attending wakes of friends and acquaintances and it seems the Grim Reaper is without letup.

Latest to go was Bob Atiwag, a musician-friend who traces his roots from Bontoc, Mountain Province. His body was flown in from New Zealand where he had been working. Two months ago, while he was on vacation here, peers held a concert for him at the Kinoboyan along Bokawkan Road in Baguio to raise funds for his fare to New Zealand for treatment of lung cancer.

He said he didn’t smoke saying he might have contracted the disease from the mine site where he worked. From then on, he said he was advised by his doctor to wear nose masks.

At Kinoboyan, Bob even gave me two of his new masks when he noticed my sinus flared up and I had difficulty breathing due to the smoke. That was the last time I talked to him and maybe, his way of bidding farewell to the Great Beyond

Also a few days ago, my cousin Raymond Baaten of Sagada, Mountain Province succumbed to a heart attack in Laguna where he settled with his family and was buried there. I’m now in my late 40s and he was a lot younger than me by at least nine years. My condolences to the Atiwag and Baaten families.

So to everyone, time to watch out for that deadly cholesterol. I’m doing that and have stopped eating pork for two years already.
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Meanwhile, the Brookside Women’s Club in Baguio will be holding a concert on Feb. 9 at the Amarillo Sound Pub at Legarda Road, Baguio City to raise funds for Rudy L. Bencio, 66, who is suffering from acute liver ailment.

Bencio, a volunteer tanod of the barangay for many years had been caring for his mother, who also had the same ailment but who died last week. Ever since he acquired the disease, he had to stop working. We are appealing to good Samaritans who could help him in whatever way like buying tickets for the concert.

You could contact Jet Allan of the women’s club or the Brookside Barangay Hall for tickets or buy these at Amarillo’s on Feb. 9, the concert night which starts at 7.30 p.m.

The concert will feature lawyers Bubut Olarte, RollyVergara, Nes
Mondoc and Angie. Others include late 70s and 80s Baguio musicians March Fianza, Hector Cruz, Bobby Carantes, Arsen Marzan and Yours Truly.

I will be teaming up with George Tamaray my former bandmate at the Music Box and maybe Butch Cando, our former drummer would be around.

Other performers include Ray Pomar, Erick Cabangon (younger brother of Noel Cabangon), Alma Angiwan, Liza Noble, Felix Tayaotao, Alyra& Sammy Comiles, Dick Oakes Jr., Seldom Seen, Blue Graz, Paul Coyupan, Art Tampoa, Dennis Tabbang, Ernie Caccam and other friends
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Meanwhile, I would like to inform Good Samaritans, relatives, common friends and acquaintances of Ramon S. Dacawi, chief information officer of the Baguio City government that he is in dire need for a heart operation.

He needs at least P600,000 for the operation and had been confined at the Baguio General Hospital and later Notre Dame Hospital in Baguio due to his ailments which included diabetes.

Now the shoe is on the other foot, an adage he often quoted. Ramon had been the frontliner in raising funds for marginalized patients of kidney, heart, liver and other forms of ailments in the Cordillera over the years.
A concert was held for him by musician friends and from the media at the Philippine Information Agency grounds across The Mansion but I guess, the funds, courtesy of March Fianza was minimal.

He doesn’t know we are plugging for him and are sure to get his ire if he finds out. But then, whether he likes it or not, he needs help. Let us help him this time.