The Belo charities

That was the most nightmarish Yuletide schedule for me ever — what with seven Metro Manila Film Festival entries and one indie movie to watch, the rummaging for Christmas presents and little events to host here and there.

As a result, holiday decors at home (set up by Designer Blooms) were installed only last Dec. 28 (you read that right — three days after Christmas). And out of the so many Christmas parties I got invited to (for a country devastated by a series of calamities, there was an overabundance of celebrations this year), I managed to show up in only less than a dozen (and I had to work in some of those). The schedule got so tight I even stood up one birthday party that was planned for me and for Lorna Tolentino’s birthday bash last Dec. 23. I only had enough time to have a plate of salad before rushing off to the funeral coverage of Sharon Cuneta’s beloved Yaya Loring.

But in that sea of activities, the most significant event for me that busy Yuletide season was still the Christmas party hosted by the Belo Medical Group for its scholars and the victims of burns being helped out by Dr. Vicki Belo.

The affair was held at the Café Romulo, which is located in one of the side streets off Tomas Morato Avenue in Quezon City. Since that was still early December, the restaurant didn’t have Yuletide decorations yet and so Belo head physician Dr. Maricar Cruz had the huge Christmas tree — trimmings and all — set up in the lobby of the Belo clinic in Morato dragged some six, seven blocks (crossing even the busy Timog-Morato rotunda) to the venue to make the place look more festive. How they did that — I didn’t ask anymore. Expect the Belo Group to make the impossible possible. If they are capable of making all that accumulated fat in a person’s tummy turn from flab to flat, surely they can have a Christmas tree delivered halfway across the district.

Since I stayed from start to finish, I managed to meet all the scholars of the Ike and Nena Foundation (named after Vicki’s parents), which is the registered and official name of the Belo charities. There was Mary Ann Calubia, a shy, petite young woman being sent to nursing school by Dr. Belo. This early I am already trying to pirate her to work for my ailing Mom, but I have a feeling she’d rather seek employment as a nurse in one of the Belo Clinics since they have excellent employees’ benefits there.

The other scholars are still in grade school: Chestane Averic Lagutan, six years old; Liza Marie Laureno, eight; Mark Judiel de Jesus, 10 and Patricia Moncal, seven. These kids now all attend private schools but have to maintain grades that do not go below 80 percent if they want to remain scholars of Belo (I think that is a reasonable enough demand on the part of Vicki). I can see them being sent all the way to college by Dr. Belo if they maintain their good academic standing.

Most promising for me, however, is this 11-year-old kid named Jessie Miller. It is an interesting story how Vicki discovered him: Jessie was a contestant in Wowowee and Dr. Belo was so impressed with the boy’s intelligence. He eventually won in the end and the father now drives a jeep that was bought from the boy’s winnings.

Seeing Jessie’s potentials, Dr. Belo put the boy under her scholarship foundation and so far so good, Jessie is doing great in his studies at the private La Consolacion school in Caloocan. He wants to be a doctor someday so that he can also help others.

Among the burn victims, I managed to have a long chat with the parents of Yuri Barcelona, a little boy of four, who sustained burns while watching his father do a barbecue of their day’s meal. A piece of burning paper landed on his arm and he suffered really bad burns.

To help Yuri, Dr. Michelle Villanueva of the Belo clinic in Rustan’s would administer procedures to flatten the keloids and produce melanin to rid him of the ugly white scars on his arm. He is on his way to recovery and hopefully will grow up with very little trace of that accident that happened to him a year ago — thanks to Belo.

Oh, but those procedures can be painful for a little kid like Yuri because these involve injections. The boy has to be bribed with cookies first and during instances when the Belo staff gets too busy and forgets to get him his treats, he whines: “Tusok nang tusok, wala namang cookies.” That would so charm Dr. Villanueva that she’d send out for anything sweet from the stores nearby.

Yuri still has a few more sessions to undergo before he recovers completely. It may be a painful process for him, but it’s better for him to bear the pain now than to grow up scarred from all the teasing he’d surely get from this society of ours that admittedly can be so unkind and cruel to victims of burns and others with physical aberrations.

Just like Yuri, two other burn victims — Johnlor Parto and Airen Carbellido — are also being given the chance to have better lives with the free recovery treatments they get from Belo.

A major accomplishment is the case of Henry Poquiz, who used to work with the Hitachi Cable in Lipa, but sought greener pastures later in Taiwan where a mechanical malfunction resulted in his face and arms getting severely burned. Twice a month, he is being treated — free of charge — by the Belo clinic in Morato where he regularly gets from Dr. Myra Red V-beam procedures for anti-inflammation, Kenakorte injections for his keloids and hypertropic scars and omnilux to lessen the redness on his face, plus fraxel and derma roller on his arms. He still has a long way to go, but his condition has improved a lot and Belo will see to it that he recovers completely. Henry never lost hope, especially since his girlfriend, Ronalyn Recede, stood by him all throughout his ordeal and that is so admirable of her.

That night of the party, Ronalyn was also with him (they were fetched from Lipa) and they had a grand time watching the kids play games and perform before Dr. Vicki Belo, the Belo staff and the guest of honor, Cheryl Cosim of Salamat Dok.

It will always be among the most meaningful Christmas parties I’ve attended in the many, many Yuletide seasons of my life. That evening was another reaffirmation for me that the Belo Medical Group doesn’t only provide the privileged the opportunity to look young and beautiful, but also gives the young underprivileged the hope to have beautiful lives and a better chance at the future.