Parents losing trust on DOH programs

MANILA — I'm in Manila not to attend the President's 6th and final State of the Nation Address, but to play a media golf tournament and presscon for the up and coming 5th edition of the Aboitiz Invitational Golf Tournament to kick off on August 5 to 8 in South Woods Golf and Country Club.

I was on the first flight with Aboitiz Equities Ventures Senior Vice President Ernest Villareal and two Philippine Star columnists, Professor Alex Magno and Mary Ann LL. Reyes, and Cebu's very own golf professional Charles "Chuckie" Hong. Since it was my first time to play the Legends Course in Southwoods, I prefer not to talk about my golf game.

This is the second year the Aboitiz Invitational is being held in Manila. This was in line with the official Aboitiz corporate decision to move their headquarters to Manila two years ago. Of course, sports media personalities asked the question that I wanted to ask: When would the Aboitiz Invitational Golf Tournament return to Cebu?

Ernest Villareal told us that this was not impossible, but not as of the moment. The reason why the Manila-based media wanted it played in Cebu is so that they could fly to Cebu, play golf and have a good time. But because it is held in Manila, I'm the only one that Aboitiz sent to Manila.

One thing I learned from Mr. Irfan Hamid, chair of the Asian Development Tour, is that the purse for the Aboitiz Invitational, which was pegged at $100,000 last year, would remain the same; after all, this purse money is one of the biggest in our local and international golf tournaments. So whom are we routing to win in this year's Aboitiz Invitational?  Of course, I'm routing for Chuckie Hong, whom we used to play at the Cebu Country Club before he turned professional. But then, there's last year's defending champion Antonio Lascuna, Jay Bayron and Elmer Salvador who previously won the Aboitiz Invitational. All I can say is good luck to all the golfers to this country's most prestigious golf tournament.

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I have not yet touched on the President Benigno Aquino III's SONA due to the fact that we are way past our deadline before the President stops speaking. However, there are pressing issues that I hope President PNoy could answer. I got this email from Leyte by concerned parents who do not want their names to be known, but they felt a certain sense of urgency. It's about Department of Health going on a vaccination. So here it is in full:

Dear Mr. Avila, I am writing you with a sense of urgency regarding DOH-DepEd HPV vaccination program this coming August 3, 2015 on Grade 4 pupils in Leyte. My wife, who is a public school nurse and a Catholic, suspects that the vaccination is a smokescreen for birth control. I am not a medical doctor so I searched on the Internet what side effects can be had from this vaccine. To my surprise it can cause infertility as per one article.

I am not in the position to assess the truthfulness of the report so I am requesting you to please ask DOH Secretary Garin for confirmation. May this letter of mine be of help to protect the innocent children from the evil designs of the government. I will not reveal my name to protect my wife who is a government employee. Thank you and may God bless us all. JPC."

Indeed, this is a very serious issue in the sense that President PNoy appointed the most vocal pro-reproductive health advocate as secretary of Health in Secretary Janette Garin. While the person writing me this letter has requested me to ask Secretary Garin to confirm or validate a report on the HPV vaccination, I find it useless to ask the DOH secretary because we know that she has a one-track mind when it comes to reducing our population.

It is really up to the parents to go out of their way to demand from the DOH on the safety of the HPV vaccination program, that it would not result in the children's becoming infertile. This is the problem of the DOH today for they have never come up to ask an independent body to check or verify whether the vaccines given to our children are safe or not?

At this point, I exhort all parents to come out in the open to demand from the DOH clear-cut results on the HPV vaccines that can be verifiable. At least, we are giving you this warning that unless the DOH shows some kind of transparency, then they should never risk having their children take those vaccines only to find out years later that they can no longer produce grandchildren for their parents.

For sure, this issue was never discussed in the President's SONA, but if it is of grave concern to the parents in Leyte, then parents from the entire Visayas and Mindanao should also be just as concerned. By appointing Secretary Garin to the DOH, parents have lost their trust in the DOH programs.

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