Is there truth to the morphine story?
The 1986 Constitutional Commission wrote into our Charter a provision that emphasizes the importance of the health of the President. The commissioners reckoned it from the contrasting situations of American President Ronald Reagan and Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos.
When would-be assassin John Hinkley Jr. pierced the security cordon of Reagan and shot him at close range, the American society fell in a state of shock. What assuaged their discomfiture was the medical bulletin that authorities never failed to issue at regular intervals.
Marcos, on the other hand, was rumored to be very sick in his last few years in Malacañang. He would disappear from public view, now and then. Speculations then came in deluge, but nobody from the government would either deny or confirm his ailment. So, those who crafted our Constitution decided that, in such cases, some identifiable leaders of the country should be given access to the President, find out if he is sick and inform us of his condition.
I recalled this constitutional provision while my lady, Carmen, and I joined the line of senior citizens claiming our cash assistance from the city government last Monday. A gentleman approached me with a concerned look on his face, even if his hand shake was firm and warm. He did not say it quite categorically but,in any case, I am bound not to mention his name here after he disclosed to me a sensitive bit of information.
Is it true that Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is using morphine? That is the shortest question I could formulate from the unspecified information relayed to me that Monday morning. Osmeña is certainly not President Reagan whose physical condition-following a critical operation to remove the bullet from Hinkley's gunneeded to be broadcast to the American public. Neither is he President Marcos whose disappearance from public visibility without official explanation led us to speculate on his health.
But, Osmeña is our mayor and we have the right to know about his health. If this information is a canard, let us hear from the mayor himself and whoever is responsible for spreading it should be made to answer for the damage he might have caused. If, however, it is true that Osmeña is using morphine, may we know if it is related to the surgery to remove cancer cells from his body or it is for another ailment.
I first heard of morphine in my elementary years. It was reportedly an addictive drug that deranged its victims. Our wealthy Chinaman neighbor allegedly got addicted to morphine, taking (or using) it on a regular basis. His business went bankrupt in order to maintain his addiction. Lately, I heard again the word morphine uttered in a television series on the Afghanistan war. An American soldier was hit by a sniper fire and, while writhing in terrible pain, his buddy asked if he would want another shot of morphine.
Mayor Osmeña should tell us his present medical condition. Transparency is a good governance policy. A day before the city celebrated its Charter Day, he hinted that he would need to go on a furlough and suggested his wife to run for mayor. The rationale he gave seemed to indicate that he had lost his zest. Others might probably ask: "Why, is it because he is sick?"
If his medical condition is one that requires morphine to alleviate his pain, it must be serious that it is possible his sense of reason may be somehow impaired. With impaired reasoning, his policy direction can be flawed. That is why we, his constituents, must know.
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