Two extraordinary people - JAYWALKER by Art A. Borjal

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s decision to throw Malacañang’s gates wide open on Sundays, so that children living nearby could play at the Palace grounds, was a wise and wonderful decision. It makes everyone realize that Malacañang is actually the Palace of the People, not the fiefdom of a despot or authoritarian leader. Likewise, it makes the people – especially the common tao whom GMA’s father, the late President Diosdado Macapagal, truly loved – feel much, much closer to the country’s leaders.

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President GMA can go one step further in removing the "under siege" mentality that turned Malacañang, particularly during the time of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, into a barricaded fortress. She can order the removal of those heavily-guarded military checkpoints at the gates leading to Malacañang, and allow the free flow of traffic and people in the streets fronting and adjoining the Palace.

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Now, if junior policemen from the University Belt can be assigned, as part of their civic duty education, to act as traffic aides in the key intersections leading to Malacañang, that would be a sight to behold. And it could inculcate in the public mind virtues and values such as discipline, youthful idealism, and volunteerism.

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Now, as for the soldiers and cops at present manning the military checkpoints at J.P. Laurel Street and the road leading to Ayala Bridge, they can do more meaningful jobs somewhere else. And this could ease the big manpower burden that the Presidential Security Group now shoulders, in assigning on a 24-hour basis, so many uniformed troopers just to watch motorists passing by.

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There is a very interesting footnote to my Sunday (March 18) column about the two great surgeons – Dr. Enrique Ona and Dr. Augusto Sarmiento – who were sent by God to save my life. On the day that a patient is discharged from confinement in a hospital, the usual practice is for the hospital’s billing section to know from the attending physicians what their professional fees would be, so that these could be indicated in the patient’s bill. And the patient would not be discharged unless he pays for all the hospital bills and the attending physicians' professional fees.

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In my case, I was given the clearance to leave The Medical City and go home, without the fees of Dr. Ona and Dr. Sarmiento being indicated in the hospital bill. I was informed the two doctors did not specify the amount I would pay as their professional fee, but they nonetheless gave the go-signal for my discharge from the hospital.

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When Dr. Ona dropped by my hospital room very early in the morning of Monday, March 5, I said: "Doc, you did a wonderful job in saving my life. Please don’t hesitate to indicate your professional fee." Do you know what Dr. Ona, the best kidney transplant surgeon in our country, said, in reaction to my request that he specify a professional fee? "Art, money is not all that matters in this world," Dr. Ona said.

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As to Dr. Sarmiento, whose fee was not also listed down in the Medical City’s bill, I decided to sign a blank check and turn it over to Menggay, his efficient secretary and Girl Friday. "Please ask Dr. Sarmiento to put down the appropriate amount for his excellent job in saving my life," I requested Menggay.

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Over a week after I gave the check to Menggay, Dr. Sarmiento handed over to me a sealed envelope last Saturday morning, March 17, and said, "You may open that at home." The envelope contained Dr. Sarmiento’s handwritten note, which reads as follows:

Dear Art,

I truly was a pleasure meeting you personally and, professionally, a privilege to be able to help you in your recent surgery.

I am taking the liberty of returning the check you gave me with profound thanks for this generous act. I appreciate it greatly, but may I suggest that you accept the amount that I have indicated as my humble contribution to your Good Samaritan Foundation. This is my small way of being a part, albeit small, of your many, many charitable offerings to the disabled and the needy.

It is a great feeling to receive recognition for the work I have been doing for a good many years, and I appreciate your mentioning it in one of my favorite daily columns, the Jaywalker.

Sincerely,
Tiko

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In previous columns, I had used the adjective great to describe the skill and excellence of Dr. Ona and Dr. Sarmiento as surgeons, something that is widely acknowledged by their peers and disciples in the medical profession. Now, I must expand the meaning of great to include the bigness of heart of these two surgeons.

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Indeed, how overwhelmingly big their hearts are! While others would readily gobble up the material things of this earth, here are Dr. Ona and Dr. Sarmiento demonstrating that what matters more to them are not gold and riches but the chance to be of service to their fellowmen. My sincere prayer is that the tribe of Dr. Ona and Dr. Sarmiento increase, and that God give them, together with their loved ones, continued good luck, good health, and His heavenly blessings. Thanks a million!

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Antonio "Tony" Salenga, my oldtime friend with whom I worked at Manila City Hall during the incumbency of then Mayor Antonio "Yeba" J. Villegas, way, way back in the late sixties, wrote to me in reaction to my column item where I had negative references to the administration of retired Gen. Romeo David of the Clark Development Corporation. Tony Salenga, it turned out, is still the Head Executive Assistant of the Office of the CDC president, and he had worked closely with Gen. David.

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Clark did not turn from far to worse during David’s administration, clarified Salenga. "On the contrary, under his leadership and managerial knowhow, Clark became a boom town," said Tony. And he informed me that David was a retired military officer who has a masteral degree from the Asian Institute of Management, and a masteral degree from Auburn University in the USA.

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Salenga then cited facts and figures to show that Clark had its heyday during David’s incumbency as CDC head. Jobs generated during David’s three-year tenure went up from less than 10,000 to 56,000 actual jobs. Clark was a model place.

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Unfortunately though, admitted Salenga, Clark’s boom became a bust after David left and after Rogelio Singson and Rufo Colayco took over the CDC helm. "These highly touted civilian managers of Erap miserably failed to achieve the primary objective of the Clark ecozone, which is to generate jobs and livelihood opportunities for the victims of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption and former base workers who lost their jobs when the former Clark Air Base was abandoned by the Americans," Salenga said.

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According to Salenga, Clark became a ghost town since then. And it even became notorious for being the haven of smugglers and a crocodile farm, a notoriety that has stuck to this day. Clark now looks shabby and untidy, unlike during David’s time when it was spic and span, added Salenga.

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Tony Salenga pleaded with me to give a space to his letter, "if only to do justice to a man who had given almost a lifetime in the service of his country as a soldier and as a civilian." In sum, Tony said that David is the only military man he knows "who is more civilian than any of us who never wore a military uniform."

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My e-mail address: [email protected]