Thanks to Bagong Mata project, teener finally sees after 11 years

TAGBILARAN CITY — Blind since birth, 11-year-old Roselle Mitocua could not believe she could see after undergoing a successful cataract operation on both eyes last April 19. The bandage on her eyes was removed on the next day.

The free eye surgery was a gift of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo to Mitocua who was suffering from a congenital eye disease.

Arroyo was moved upon seeing the condition of the little girl from the town of Baclayon whose poor parents had been looking for a Good Samaritan who would defray the expensive cataract operation.

For the Mitocua family, their prayers were finally answered through Arroyo’s free medical mission called "Bagong Mata Para sa may Katarata."

Roselle is looking forward this June to enrolling as a first grader. The cataract had prevented her from going to school.

The ophthalmologist who operated on Roselle’s eyes was Dr. Frederico Malubay of the Malacañang Clinic.

Roselle was among the 500 indigent beneficiaries of Arroyo’s cataract medical mission here at the Gov. Celestino Gallares Memorial Hospital last April 18-23. Arroyo flew here to meet with the patients.

Roselle thanked the First Gentleman for the gift of sight. Her mother, Zorina, said their family could not afford the eye operation that they thought that she would just grow up blind, if not for Arroyo’s project.

Another beneficiary, Rosita Cupino, 76, mother of 12, said she felt privileged and happy that Arroyo’s cataract team was in Bohol to do charity work.

"I’m very fortunate to be one of the beneficiaries," she said.

Majority of the beneficiaries had to walk for more than 40 kilometers or for more than four hours to avail themselves of Arroyo’s free cataract operation.

The other members of the eye specialists team were Drs. Reynaldo Capuz of the AFP Medical Center, Augustus de Villa of the PSG-Hospital and Jose Gonzalo Ditching, a private practitioner.

The nurses came from the Malacañang Clinic. Local medical personnel assisted the Manila team.

Meanwhile, 300 poor residents here were provided with free dentures under the First Gentleman’s Bagong Ngiti sa Dating Ngebu project.

Arroyo led the ceremonial fitting and distribution of the dentures to the beneficiaries.

The project came about when the President, during a 2004 election campaign sortie in Jagna, also in Bohol, noted that many of the residents whom she had met were toothless.

"Let’s do something for them," the President told him, according to Arroyo. "I’m just the implementor."

The project is bankrolled by private funds under the FG Foundation.

To date, 7,000 pairs of eyes have been operated on under the Bagong Mata Para sa May Katarata, while more than 5,000 indigents got free dentures under the Bagong Ngiti sa Dating Ngebu.