Ma wants New Year baby to be lawyer for the poor

MANILA, Philippines - This year’s New Year baby is a girl to be named Daniella.

If her mother has a choice, she’d love to see the infant become a lawyer, who will defend the poor from injustice someday.

“I want her to be a lawyer to defend the poor who can’t afford private counsel; it’s difficult without an education as you get easily taken advantage of,” a teary-eyed Gigi Amparado, 30, told The STAR in Filipino yesterday.

The baby was born at 12:01 a.m. at the Jose Fabella Memorial Medical Center in Manila, which has earned a reputation as a “baby factory” for the millions of babies born to poor mothers at the government hospital.

“She’s a healthy baby,” said Hazel Madlang-awa, the obstetrician in charge of Fabella for New Year’s eve.

Madlang-awa was part of the team that helped deliver Daniella.

According to the doctor, Amparado was the 41st mother to be brought to the delivery room on Dec. 31.

Emergency room supervising nurse Lorna Ochoa said the figure 41 is small, considering that up to 80 mothers give birth in Fabella daily.

Daniella is the fourth child of Amparado and her husband, a jeepney driver whose name was withheld.

Both parents did not finish high school and live in a shanty in a slum area in Navotas City.

Amparado said Daniella’s birth reminded her of a cousin’s death several years back – a painful memory that she tried to forget but couldn’t.

“My cousin wasn’t given justice after she died and the gunman wasn’t arrested,” Amparado said, trying to hold back tears while lying on a stretcher with the baby close to her chest.

Amparado said she could not help but feel excited because Daniella is her dream come true.

“I’m happy because I really looked forward to having another baby girl. I want two boys and two girls, and that’s been fulfilled,” Amparado said.