RP Siamese twins to be operated on in Taiwan

Nine-month-old Siamese twins Rachel Frances and Lea Grace connected in the abdomen each has complete organs, were born to poor farming couple at the Kalinga Provincial Hospital, Kalinga Province, on July 1, 2002. Hope for new lease of a separate life came to the twins while they were undergoing medical treatment at the Lungsod ng Kabataan., Quezon City. Alfredo Lee of the Tzu Chi Foundation, Philippine Branch, a Buddhist charitable organization, generously offered assistance. The foundation made arrangements with the Tzu Chi Buddhist General Hospital in Hualien, Taiwan for the operation.

Ambassador Benjamin J.Y. Lo of the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office took the initiative to receive the twins prior to their departure for Taiwan. The Ambassador was glad of the foundation’s work and said "This is a good case to show positive cooperation between Taiwan and the Philippines." On the same occasion, Ambassador Lo also gave the twins’ mother pocket money saying "six is a lucky number for the Chinese." Since they are two, the amount corresponds to six times six.

Ambassador Lo assured the delegation that it is safe to travel to Taiwan despite the isolated SARS cases as the government has successfully undertaken measures to contain the spread of SARS in Taiwan. Taiwan has to do it alone. Due to lack of formal status in the World Health Organization (WHO) Taiwan’s request for experts visits soon after the first suspected SARS case was ignored, Taiwan was also banned from joining international efforts to fight SARS. It is imperative that Taiwan be a member of the WHO for disease knows no boundaries and that the health and rights of 23 million Taiwanese, plus 7.8 million outbound tourists, 2.3 million inland tourists and more than 70,000 Philippine workers are in jeopardy if there is an epidemic outbreak.