Today is the second day of the free medical-dental clinic put up jointly by civic-spirited Mandauehanon professionals in residence and those mostly from Uncle Sam’s land of milk and honey, moved by the missionary zeal to do a good turn for their brethren in need.
The service includes minor surgical cases held at the Mandaue City Cultural and Sports Complex (MCCSC) in Tribunal. It’s quite a big contingent of medical “balik-bayans” doing missionary service in tandem with their local fraternal counterparts.
Similar Fil-Am returnees from USA which Atty. Ruben “Bimbo” Suico and his nurse-wife Almira Perez have joined hands, had previously done medical-dental service elsewhere in the Philippines. The venue was Dagupan City last year.
Gleaned from Bimbo’s email, there are about 43 Mandauehanons who took the same flight arriving in Mactan airport on Saturday last. The welcome party was led by Mrs. Editha Fanlo-Cortes and Dr. Oscar Quirante of the Mandaue City Health Office, representing the hosts who have done the liaison and preparation set-up. Dr. Stella Cortes Fabia, a rheumatology Fellow based in Cagayan de Oro City and Bukidnon, and certainly other local medical experts pitched in with Mrs. Edith Cortes and Dr. Quirante to sew in the preparation seams.
The “balik-bayans” are spearheaded by Bimbo and Almira Suico, together with their Suico and Perez siblings and clan. Of the group, Drs. Grace Cabahug-Bautista, Omar Cabahug, and Doris Tortal are physicians and there are eight registered nurses, a pharmacist, and a nutritionist. From Manila, Bimbo also hinted the presence of the foremost neurologist of the Philippines, Dr. Martesio C. Perez and his daughter and son-in-law who are both physicians.
But among the other group comprising the team are 11 doctors, two of whom are surgeons, one OB-GYN, an ophthalmologist, a Nephro-Peds, and the rest are general practitioners, and three RNs. Others whose qualifications haven’t been specified have surely been useful in chipping in with other roles for a successful medical-dental mission.
Incidentally, the returning sons and daughters of Mandaue, homesick for their native hearth, were honored and blessed with a welcome Holy Mass at the St. Joseph’s National Shrine in the afternoon of Sunday, December 28. Later in the evening, a welcome dinner was tendered at the Park Mall near Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) both of which complexes hadn’t as yet existed when they left their home grounds for abroad.
This medical venture serves as the prelude to the second “Balik-Mandaue” come May 8, 2009 Mandaue Fiesta. To reminisce, way back in 1985, then Mayor Demetrio “Boy” Cortes launched the original “Balik Mandaue” project that enticed Mandauehanons abroad, or elsewhere in the Philippines, to a homecoming. It was a successful affair with an exodus of homesick Mandauehanons answering the beacon call from the home front.
The second “Balik-Mandaue” has long been in the works and, the present medical project is a vital precursor to make May 8, 2009 a red letter day for the Mandauehanons in other climes to retrace their roots in sentimental journey.
After all, this medical mission may only serve as an opportunity and justification to spend hard-earned dollars to touch base with the home folk and friends. Life being a showcase of metaphors – mga pasumbingay ug sanglitanan sa kinabuhi – no matter how affluent, or hard-up as the case may be, and no matter how sophisticated culture they may now live in other advanced climes, Mandauehanons remain as true-blue at heart who can’t forget the poignant and nostalgic taste of the “pochero”, or the “buriring”, or the “mahariyal”, or the “bibingka”, or Mandaue’s unique idioms and jargons. No American steak, or apple pie or ghetto slang can beat them. And to repeat one’s 1985 welcome piece, the returning Mandauehanons now and later are coming home not as strangers.
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Email: lparadiangjr@yahoo.com