June has been declared the National Kidney Month and for this writer who nearly experienced an end stage kidney failure last year, it was an experience that I shared with my readers in The Philippine Star and The Freeman, especially when I had my kidney transplant on Nov. 8, 2016. So when I learned that last Tuesday, the Philippine Society of Nephrology, Cebu Central and Eastern Visayas Chapter were the guests at the 888 News Forum in Marco Polo Plaza, I also invited them to appear in my talkshow, Straight from the Sky so we too can help them ring the alarm bells of potential kidney problems while it can still be reversed!
So tonight we have with us Dr. Vivina Chiu, pediatric nephrologist and past president of PSN and President of the Philippine Ambulatory Pediatric Association, Cebu City Chapter. Then we have Dr. Alexander Tan, adult nephrologist and President of the PSN, Central and Eastern Visayas Chapter, and Dr. Rene Catan, orthopedic surgeon and Cebu Provincial Health Officer who will discuss with us the ways to prevent end stage renal failure and if you have reached that stage, we will discuss the various ways of having a hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, or kidney transplant.
So watch these doctors tonight on SkyCable's channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV's channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.
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I lacked sleep over the weekend because I live up in Capitol Hills and the thump, thump, thump of the discoral music could be heard all around. This always happens at this time of the year especially beside our house in Quinto Limbo, which holds their annual discoral. Mind you we do not want to spoil my neighbor's party, but all we ask of them is for them to stop at midnight so we can have a sound sleep! Unfortunately last Saturday; they ended up at 3 a.m. while the others went on beyond 4 a.m.
If you didn't know, we have an Anti-Noise Law in Republic Act. No. 386 where Article 26 states, "Every person shall respect the dignity, personality, privacy and peace of mind of his neighbors and other persons." Then there's the law on unjust vexation which states, "The Supreme Court defined unjust vexation as any human conduct which, although not productive of some physical or material harm, would unjustly annoy or irritate an innocent person. The paramount question is whether the offender's act causes annoyance, irritation, torment, distress or disturbance to the mind of the person to whom it is directed."
In my book, the violator here is the disc jockey who turns on the volume to ear-splitting levels and denies the whole neighborhood a comfortable sleep. But the very reason why this law is not enforced is that the Philippine National Police simply do not enforce this law. Mind you, this same anti-noise law was effectively enforced by the Land Transportation Office which removed the loud mufflers of many motorcycles that disturb our streets. And to think catching those noisy motorcycles is a very difficult thing.
But a noisy discoral is a fixed area in a sitio or a neighborhood. But unfortunately barangay captains and their ilk fail in their responsibility to their constituents to allow people to sleep without any disturbance. Incidentally last July 21, 2015, we wrote Barangay Captain Manuel Guanzon of Capitol Site to complain about this problem. Nothing happened to our letter signed by me, my brother, and sister.
But when Pres. Rodrigo "Digong" Duterte won the presidency, he vowed that a new leadership had been installed and Filipino citizens who have complaints would have their complaints finally heard. Well, Pres. Duterte will soon be having his first year in office, but unfortunately the Anti-Noise Law has not been implemented by the police and we citizens who supported him are complaining about the noise.
Mind you, I made a personal complaint to Presidential Assistant Michael Dino about this, and we can only hope that he would task the PNP to enforce this law! There is only one major culprit here and that's the disc jockey who should be thrown into prison for disturbing the peace! Chances are good that this fellow is deep into the use of illegal drugs!