Friends of PGH host concert for a big cause

Every day, about a thousand patients are rushed to the Emergency Room Admitting Section (ERAS) of the Philippine General Hospital; these patients need immediate treatment, medicines, beds to lie in, beddings, and food. The hospital would not be able to render services were it not for the generosity and kind hearts of members of the Friends of the PGH.

Since Oct. 17, 1984, these "friends" have been helping indigent patients get more decent medical services at the hospital. The founders of the undertaking, led by Lulu Teodoro, who became the first Friends president, were part of the "middle forces" during the tyrannical Marcos years, who wanted to do something less controversial, and found it in helping poor patients at the PGH. They singled out the ERAS as main focus, catering as it does to about a thousand patents daily.

A lugawan was organized in February of 1985, with well-known celebrities donating their talents for the evening. These were Pilita Corrales, Celeste Legaspi, Tessie Tomas, Bert Nievera, Subas Herrera and Noel Trinidad. The sizeable amount raised went into the maintenance of the ERAS premises and supplies of basic medical needs such as disposable needles and syringes, IV fluids, antibiotics, ambu-bags, oxygen gauges, and blood pressure apparatuses.

Steady increases in Friends’ membership brought in new resources and ideas, and during the terms of the second and third presidents (Essem Perez and Lou Ellen Padilla, respectively), more funds came in from bi-annual rummage sales, bazaars, and other special events like bingo and concert socials.

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When the FPGH was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission as a non-stock, non-profit foundation, more donations, from domestic as well as foreign sources, poured in. Thus there was money for bigger items such as wheelchairs, hospital beds and other supplies and equipment. A substantial contribution came in the form of cessium needles for gynecological cancer patients worth half a million pesos (with counterpart help from US-based doctors), and P99,000 donated to the PGH Blood Bank.

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The present president, Carmelita Salvador, is hard at work looking for ways and means to continue the work done by her predecessors. Aside from the hospital supplies that have to be kept ready for patients, the organization maintains a secretary to take calls from donors and requests for help; a library of assorted reading materials for patients and hospital employees, and together with the Women‚s Auxiliary (made up of wives of PGH doctors), a thrift shop selling donated old and new clothes, appliances and other goods, the earnings of which go to ERAS, of course.

Lita is excited about the FPGH’s major fund-raising activity this year, which will be a concert of well-known artists on October 12, 7:30 p.m., at the RCBC Plaza, Carlos P. Romulo Hall. For tickets, one may call her at631 0369 or CP0917 461 9446.

Below are bits of information about the performing artists.

Nolyn A. Cabahug, tenor, is the only opera singer given the "Classical Singer of the Year" award by the National Press Club's Tinig Awards. He started as a member and soloist of the Manila Metropolitan Theater Chorus and the UP Concert Chorus and has toured Europe, the US, Canada, Bermuda, Australia and Asia. He sang lead roles in Filipino and Italian operas, Broadway musicals, zarzuelas, oratorios, cantatas, and given solo concerts in major cities here and abroad. He has recordings with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, the Manila Symphony Orchestra, DZFE‚s Maestro Filipino, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Las Pinas Bamboo Organ, and Vicor Recordings.

Lisa A. Cabahug, soprano, studied at the UP Conservatory of Music where she began her professional career as a soloist of the UP Concert Chorus which toured Europe, the US, Canada and Australia. She has performed locally and internationally in zarzuelas, Broadway musicals, and sang classic masterpieces such as Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, Antonio Vivaldi's Magnificat, Mendelsohn's Elijah among others and in operas like La Boheme, and Rendezvous in Venice, and most recently, Hansel and Gretel which was produced by the Philippine Opera Co. and Repertory Philippines. She also conducts choirs and does recordings. Last year, she and top classical singers released an album entitled Philippine Christmas Festival.

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Joanna Go is a graduate of the University of British Columbia Opera Performance program in Vancouver, Canada. She recently performed with Tribung Pinoy in the concert entitled Mutya ng Silangan as part of the Concert Nights series at the Old walls. She has sang operatic pieces in Massachusetts, Vancouver, San Francisco nad studied with renowned bass-baritone Gary Relyea. In August 1999, her solo debut voice recital in Manila with the Festival Orchestra under the baton of Prof. Emeritus Regalado Jeose, was received with acclaim.

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Nomer Son, bass-baritone, holds degrees in architecture from the UST and North Carolina State University, but has gone into music. He debuted at the CCP stage in zarzuelas, notably Ang Kiri and Minda Mora and in the Puccini opera La Boheme as Colline. He also appeared in stage plays with the Teatro Pilipino of National Artist Rolando Tinio and Conching Sunico's Manila Metropolitan Theater. He has traveled extensively in the US, Canadao and Europe for concerts and theatrical performances.

Virgina Laico-Villanueva is one of the leading Filipino achievers in the field of music. She as a consistent scholar of the Battig Music Society at the St. Scholastica's College in Manila. She holds a bachelor‚s in music with honors, from the Chicago Conservatory College where the was awarded the Lake View Musical society Scholarship. As a tribute to her excellence in performance she was chosen soloist for the school's graduation commencement concert, and awarded a teaching fellowship at the Peabody Conservtory of Music Preparatory Department. She has won many awards in music competitions in the Philippines and the US. She is a successful composer, and was awarded best composition by the Cultural Center of the Philippines in its song cycle competition contest. Last August, she did a solo piano concert at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary.

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(My e-mail address: [email protected].)