Far Eastern University invited me again this year to be their commencement speaker for their nursing and science graduates at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Manila. Here is my 7 April 2009 speech, which had to be different from the speech I gave last year:
My dear graduates,
I congratulate you, because today you start a new phase of your lives. Today, you change from being students to being professionals. Today, you move from mainly inside to completely outside the campus, from the world of studies to the world of work. I know that all of you have gone through RLE or OJT and some of you are already actually earning a living, so you know something about how different the workplace is from the classroom.
I want to talk about the workplace or, more precisely, about the world at large. It is the world that you will now enter full-time.
I want to use a metaphor that should be very clear to the nursing graduates, but of course the IAS graduates who are in the sciences, should also know what I am talking about. The IAS graduates in the arts are, of course, experts in the use of metaphor.
I don’t know much about preventive or curative nursing management nor even about primary health care, but I do know quite a bit about my body, a human body.
The world is like a human body. We are all cells in the world. Just like individual cells, we look like each other, but we are really different from each other, with different roles to play within the body that is the world. Just like cells, we live and we die. We live much longer than cells do, but we are still all mortal. Cells die but the body lives on, just as individual human beings live and die, but the world continues.
As cells, we form tissues. These are our families, our classmates, our friends, whether face-to-face or on Friendster or Facebook.
These tissues form organs that have different functions in the world. The organs that are our communities are there to nurture us. Your communities gave you nutrition, security, friendship, took care of you, so that you can be the adult that you are now. The organs that are our schools, the organ that is FEU, these organs are there to educate us. Schools gave you brain food, took care of your minds, so that you can be the graduate that you are now. The organs that are our churches and mosques give you spiritual food, are taking care of your souls, so that you can be the mature person that you are now. Just as we have many organs in the human body, there are many other organs that are formed by the tissues that we belong to, organs such as government, business and industry, media, restaurants, transportation, everything that we see around us.
As you learned in school, even those not in nursing, organs form systems, and these systems make the body run. There are different systems that make the world run. Let me describe them.
The skeletal system or skeleton of the world is the earth, nature, the land, the mountains, the sea. Just as we have to take care that we do not break our bones, we have to take care of the earth. We must make sure that the land is fertile, so that trees can grow and animals can find food. We must make sure that the waters of the sea and the rivers remain clean, so life can thrive there. We should learn a lesson from the human body. We cannot say that a single cell cannot make a difference. A single cancer cell soon becomes many cancer cells, and you know what happens when cancer metastasizes. You know what happens when we as individuals do not take care of the earth, when we do not keep our immediate surroundings clean, when we waste natural resources. As health professionals, you know how to keep yourself safe from harmful bacteria. As full-time professionals, you are now expected to keep the earth itself safe from harmful substances and processes.
The muscular system of the world is nature in the form of trees, fish, animals, living creatures. The land stays healthy if there are trees. Just as we have to make sure that we do not strain our muscles, we must make sure that we do not deprive the land of trees. Just as we make sure that we exercise our muscles to keep them in good shape, we must make sure that the food chain is kept intact, that we do not destroy species, that we do not endanger them. The tamaraw is a good symbol of FEU’s determination to keep the muscular system of the world healthy. We are working hard to ensure that the tamaraw does not disappear. As full-time professionals, you are expected to work hard to ensure that all species remain alive, in order not to destroy the delicate balance of nature.
The reproductive system of the world, whether we admit it or not, is us. We were told by our Creator to go and multiply, and we have taken that command literally. We multiply like crazy, from just one pair of human beings to almost seven billion people on earth. But just as, biologically, we can reproduce only so often, we must make sure that the earth is not overpopulated, because we have only so much air and so much space. As individuals who will later get married and have children, you must remember that the earth has only so much to offer, and the more there are of us, the less we can get from the earth. As full-time professionals, you are expected to be responsible cells in the reproductive system of the world.
The circulatory system of the world is, for many of you, your own parents and relatives. There are now over 11 million adult Filipinos working and living outside the Philippines, populating the earth, circulating all over the world. They have brought Philippine culture with them, and we are clearly the most widespread race on earth, perhaps even more widespread than the Chinese, who stay together and put up Chinatowns, unlike us. In any case, the world has dropped its borders, and everybody now lives everywhere. As individual cells working for the health of the circulatory system, we must keep the blood flowing, so to speak. As full-time professionals, you are expected to be global in outlook and even in residence.
The nervous system of the world is the economy, money, financial matters. Just as the nerves control our physiological processes, money makes things happen, whether through governments or through private individuals or groups. Especially when the body is under tremendous nervous strain, as the world is now with the financial crisis, it is very important that every single cell does not add to the strain. As full-time professionals, you are expected to remain responsible in money matters. You must not waste money.
The digestive system of the world is science, medicine, knowledge, intellectual capital. It is the scholars, the scientists, the thinkers, the intellectuals that ensure that the world learns from its history. We take the food given us by our experiences, and we digest that food to make it useful for all of humanity. We have to learn to distinguish the good from the bad. We know that we cannot eat everything, that we have to stay away from fatty foods, bad cholesterol, sugar, salt, things of that sort. We also should know that we do not need to know everything. There are facts that will help us and facts that we do not need to know. The temptation to eat everything, the temptation to spend the whole day surfing the Web, is very, very great, but we have to have everything in moderation. As full-time professionals, you are expected to know how to manage your time, how to know where to look for information, how to learn how to learn.
The excretory system of the world is international and national law. The law keeps us from being too selfish and ensures that everyone gets a chance to live a full life. Just as the excretory system removes bad things from our bodies, the law puts evil and corrupt persons in jail, at least in theory. As individual cells, we have to trigger reactions that will signal the presence of bad cells in our midst. Good cells have to fight bad cells. Cancerous cells have to be overcome. The biggest cancer facing our country today is the cancer of corruption. We have to stop corruption on every level, especially on our own personal level. If all of us, if all cells, just refuse to bribe anybody, the corrupt government officials will not find anyone to bribe them. Remember that it takes two to tango, two to be corrupt. Jose Rizal said that there are no tyrants where there are no slaves. We can say that there are no corrupt government officials where there are no corruptors. There cannot be bad cells if every cell is good. As full-time professionals with the FEU values, you are expected to be upright and incorruptible.
The lymphatic system of the world is religion, the various religions. Religion keeps us from thinking that we are alone in this world. Religion reminds us that there is something bigger and higher than us. Like the lymphatic system, religion destroys evil. Religion signals us if there is something wrong, if cancer has somehow crept into our world. If there is no God, one novelist once wrote, then everything is permitted. Since there is a God, whether we call God Lord or Allah, not everything is permitted. The lymphatic system can make us immune from evil, if we continue to have faith in God. As full-time professionals, you are expected to live up to your being made in the image and likeness of God.
The respiratory system of the world is society with its mores, norms, and beliefs. It is within society that we live, so we have to follow society’s ways, or we risk respiratory failure. Society is the oxygen we breathe. When we are born, we are born immediately into society. We breathe in oxygen the moment you nurses shout “Baby Out.” Once we are born, we find ourselves out in society. There is no way to avoid being in society. Society is good for us. As full-time professionals, as individual cells, you are expected to respect the tissue, the organ, the system in which you find yourselves.
Let me see. There are ten systems in the human body and I have already mentioned nine. What is left?
The endocrine system. The endocrine system relays chemical messages throughout the body. What is the endocrine system in the world? You. Yes, you. You, the younger generation, form the system that controls or should control most of the processes of the other systems in the world. The body cannot grow, the world cannot grow, your family and neighbors and friends and country cannot grow without the endocrine system, without you.
I know that you have heard this before: the youth are the hope of the country. I am saying the same thing, but in a slightly different way. You fresh graduates, you young nurses, you young scientists, you are the hypothalamus, pituitary, thyroid, pancreas, adrenal glands of the world. You are the ones that will ensure that the world will run smoothly, properly, effectively, humanely. You are the ones with the new ideas, with the fresh energy, with the enthusiasm and the idealism and the good will. You are Web 2.0. You are Facebook. You are YouTube. You are awesome. You are you.
What have we learned from this little exercise in analogy?
No cell functions alone. We cannot do things by ourselves. We need to be part of tissues, the tissues of our family, our friends, our classmates. Tissues cannot act alone; we need to be part of organs, the organs of our community, our school, our church or mosque. Organs cannot act alone; we are all part of various systems.
There are good cells – that’s us – and there are bad cells. These bad cells, these cancerous cells, are those that ruin our world, those morally bad (such as corrupt government officials), those intellectually bad (such as ignorant people), those spiritually bad (such as those that do not follow God’s commandments), those psychologically or sociologically bad (such as those that do not follow the rules that we live by) – they ruin the earth. It is our responsibility as good cells to drive away the bad cells, to have them excreted from the human body as waste. If government officials are corrupt, we must not reelect them or elect their relatives next year. If there are people that have not gone to school and are still mired in superstition, we must reach out to them and educate them, do community service for the out-of-school or the illiterate. If there are people that disobey the laws of God or the laws of human beings, we must show them the error of their ways. We must not let only the excretory system worry about them, because we are the endocrine system: we tell the excretory system what are toxic and what are nutrients. No cell stands apart from the body. As the Tagalogs say, sakit ng kalingkingan sakit ng buong katawan. You individually can make a difference to the health of your family, your community, your country, and the world as a whole.
This is my prescription for you. Stay healthy. Keep the world healthy. As many have said before me, do not just change the world. Be the change the world needs. Be change itself.
Usually, when I say goodbye to someone, I say, see you soon. I will not say that to you today, my dear young nurses, because the only reason I will see you again is if I have been admitted into a hospital and you are doing rounds with me as your patient. I don’t want to see you again, so I will just say, I am very glad that I have seen you today and that you have made it and that you are now, undoubtedly, indisputably, clearly, deservedly, and proudly, FEU graduates.
Congratulations!
07 April 2009
A Call to Heroism
Here is the commencement address I delivered last year (16 May 2008) at the auditorium of the Far Eastern University:
My dear graduates, I address you as heroes, because that is what you are about to be. In this talk, which I have entitled “A Call to Heroism,” I shall sketch for you why and how you are going to be heroes.
You graduate at a crucial time in the history of our country. Never before have so many been called to do so much to save this land of ours. True, we have gone through three invasions by foreign nations, an armed revolution that was the first in Asia against a European imperialist power, a war against another imperialist power, a world war, martial law, and two people power revolutions, but what we are facing today is a challenge unparalleled in our history.
We face today a battle within. We fought the Spanish, the Americans, the Japanese, and Marcos’s military, but we fought them with our bodies. We fought various environmental and economic forces, but we fought them with our minds. We survived with our bodies and we survived with our minds, but today, the fight is on another front. We live in a country that is losing its soul.
You are called upon to be heroes in this new war against evil. You can be heroes in many ways, but I shall talk of only two general ways, based on where you will be one or two years from now.
One or two years from now, you will be either in another country or still in the Philippines. Let me take first what you are called to do if you go to another country.
If you live and work overseas, you can save the country in two ways. First, you can save it by sending money back to your relatives here. That money will add to the money circulating in the country. With the money that you send back here, goods will be bought and people will be employed to produce or to sell those goods.
But more important than the money is something else that you will send back here. You will send to your relatives here the values that you will learn in your stay abroad.
Let me give just two random examples. If you live in the United States, you will learn that a person’s vote is very, very important. Americans think very hard before they cast their votes. They have a very long process of choosing their candidates. They hold debates. They listen to what their candidates say on television. They do not sell their votes. They make sure that their votes are counted. They hold the people they vote for accountable for their actions in office. If you can impart to your relatives back home that respect for the electoral process, you will save this country from electoral fraud, from election violence, from overspending candidates that have to get back what they spent, from candidates that use government money – our money – to get them elected. With the values that you will learn while you are in the United States and that you can impart to the loved ones you leave here, you can help fight the evil that now surrounds our electoral process.
If you live in the Middle East, you will learn how much we should love God. They call God Allah, but that is just the Arabic word for God. There is only one God, who has many names, as many names as there are languages. Five times a day, no matter how busy they are, no matter what they are doing, the people in the Middle East stop to pray and to thank God for everything good that is happening to them. How many times a day do we Christians in the Philippines thank God for what we have? The evil that we have to fight is not just out there, with the corrupt politicians or government officials, but it is in here, inside us, where God is waiting for us to remember to be thankful. If you share with your relatives back here the kind of prayerful attitude that you will see in the Middle East, you will save your relatives and the rest of us from the evil that is godlessness.
Those are just two examples of how you can save our country if you live outside the country. What will you be called to do if you will live and work inside the Philippines?
Everything. That is the answer – everything. My generation, the older generation, has made a mess of the country. We are responsible for the loss of our forests, the fall of our economy from being the best in Asia to the worst, the deterioration of basic education from being a model for other countries to being so bad that even our public school teachers cannot pass the tests they give to their students, the destruction of our political institutions. Worst of all, we are responsible for the loss of the personal and societal values that made Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Ninoy Aquino, and our own founder Nicanor Reyes Sr. give up their lives for our country. These values are patriotism, integrity, honesty, courage, and if you want to relate it to this great institution from which you now graduate, fortitude, excellence, and uprightness. Those values are gone, or are almost gone, because we, your elders, have failed you. You are called upon to save not just us, not just your own families, but the entire country, by being heroes with exactly those same values.
What can you do to become a hero, to remain a hero? There is one answer. It is not the only answer, but it is the best answer. You must dream. You must dream. You must never, ever let go of the dreams that you now have, as you sit there savoring the moment of graduation. Remember this moment. Remember your dreams. Do not stop dreaming. Do not stop doing something to make those dreams come true. Do not ever, ever lose hope that your dreams will come true. You need to retain the values that you lived while you were here in FEU. You need to remember the knowledge and the wisdom that you learned while you were here in FEU. You need to live your life driven not just by the purpose that you, your family, your country, and your God have set for you, but by the purpose set by your dreams. A dream-driven life is what your life should be.
Let me talk a little bit about purposeful dreaming.
Throughout history, we human beings have tried very hard to define who we are, to tell us what we are, so that we will know what to do with ourselves.
The very first definition we could think of, at least in the Western tradition, was that of the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle said that we are animals that think, we are rational animals.
This led to a dead end with René Descartes, the French thinker who said the famous words, I think, therefore I am. We were reduced to just being thinkers. Karl Marx came by and disproved this just as famously. According to Marx, we think according to what the people with the money or the guns want us to think.
Another definition that is very old, this time from the Middle East, was that of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus preached that we are animals that love.
As the evangelist Matthew recorded in Chapter 25 of his gospel, Jesus taught his disciples that, at the end of the world, it is not those that think that will be saved, nor those with money or guns, but those that showed their love for the rest of us, by feeding us when we were hungry, by giving us something to drink when we were thirsty, by taking us into their homes when we were homeless, even if they did not know us, by giving us clothes when we were naked, by caring for us when we were sick, by visiting us when we were imprisoned. Human beings,s aid Jesus, are animals that love.
Another definition that is not so old, again from Europe, is that of the French philosopher Henri Bergson. Bergson said that we are animals that laugh.
Today, I want to focus on a definition that is just as valid as those of Aristotle, Jesus, and Bergson.
This definition says that we are animals that dream.
Note that there are two elements in this definition. First, we are animals. We still need to eat, to drink, to propagate, to keep ourselves warm, to have a roof over our heads, to belong to groups, to have power. We still share the same needs as other animals on this planet.
But unlike all the other animals on this planet, we can dream. Dreaming is what distinguishes us from the beasts.
Martin Luther King had a dream that, as he put it, “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” We could follow that dream. We could dream of a country where we are all equal in ways other than race, where those of us that are poor will not be too different from those of us that are rich, where little rich boys and rich girls will be able to join hands with little poor boys and poor girls as sisters and brothers.
John F. Kennedy had a dream of all Americans thinking of what they could do for America, rather than what America could do for them. We could follow that dream. We could also dream of all of us asking what we can do for the Philippines, rather than what the Philippines can do for us.
John Lennon of the Beatles had a dream of the whole world, as he sang it, “all the people living life in peace.” His lyrics still ring true today. He sang, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will live as one.”
The founder of our university, Nicanor Reyes Sr., had a dream. He dreamt of a university where students would learn accounting so well that they could be equal to other accountants in the United States and in the world. He dreamt of a university where Filipinos and Asians would learn how to become professionals, would live their college years in the middle of marvelous works of art, of buildings that had great architecture, of paintings done by great artists. He did not live long enough to find out that Pablo Antonio, the architect of the first FEU buildings, would be declared a National Artist. He did not live long enough to find out that the FEU campus of the 21st century would be full of the works of other National Artists – Fernando Amorsolo’s paintings, Vicente Manansala’s sculpture, Botong Francisco’s murals. He did not live long enough to applaud the achievements of FEU students and teachers that later became National Artists, such as Francisca Aquino, F. Sionil Jose, Alejandro Roces.
The dream of Martin Luther King has been fulfilled in America, with an African American running for president. He may not make it to the White House, but his quest for his dream and the dream of all African Americans has excited not just his fellow African Americans, but many other Americans of different colors. King’s dream has been fulfilled, that people, in his words, “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
The dream of John F. Kennedy has been fulfilled in America, with thousands of Americans giving up their lives in what they think is a glorious mission to liberate other countries from what they think is the scourge of terrorism. It doesn’t really matter if they are right or wrong; the point is that they are willing to die for their country. Today, with recession threatening to bring down their country, Americans are doing what they can for their country, instead of waiting for their country to do something for them.
The dream of John Lennon that there will be no countries has been partly fulfilled, with his music and that of those that followed his lead now transcending the boundaries of countries and truly forming a world with the same tastes and sensibilities. One world, with one music.
The dream of Nicanor Reyes Sr. that FEU will be the best non-sectarian private university in the country has been fulfilled. We are, indeed, now the best, if we consider the scope of our offerings, our reputation among accrediting and assessment organizations, the performance of our graduates not just in licensure examinations but in their careers, and soon, the way you graduates today will bring honor to our school.
Today, you graduates and even you parents and friends stand closer to the fulfilment of your dreams. There will be hard times ahead, as there were hard times for King, Kennedy, Lennon, and Reyes. All of them were murdered because other people did not share their dreams. You do not have to die for your dreams, but if your dreams are going to be worth it, you should be willing to die for them. Because there is no point living if you can no longer dream. We are animals that dream. If we stop dreaming, we revert back to the status of mere animals.
Follow your dream, whatever it is. Do not be discouraged, no matter how impossible it seems to attain your dream. It is the dreaming that makes you human. More important for our country, it is your dreaming that will save our country. Because what we need right now is not technical expertise nor even money nor natural resources nor human resources. What our country needs right now are heroes.
But I have to redefine heroism in the context of our philosophical discussion of what makes human beings human. A human being is an animal that dreams. A hero is a human being that dreams not only for herself or for himself, but for others. Heroes are those that fulfill not just their own dreams, but the dreams of everyone around them. Heroes are those that will follow their dreams and the dreams of everyone else, that will make their own dreams and the dreams of their family, friends, fellow Filipinos, fellow human beings come true.
In the end, that is what makes heroes. Heroes are people that follow their dreams. Heroes are people that make other people’s dreams come true. Heroes are dreamers, doers, leaders. Heroes are you, graduates of a great institution, a great Filipino institution, a great Filipino institution built because of a dream of a great Filipino, our Founder. Be true FEU alumni. Be true to your education. Be true to yourself. Be true to your country.
We need you, graduates, alumni, heroes. I take my hat off to you. I salute you. Congratulations!
My dear graduates, I address you as heroes, because that is what you are about to be. In this talk, which I have entitled “A Call to Heroism,” I shall sketch for you why and how you are going to be heroes.
You graduate at a crucial time in the history of our country. Never before have so many been called to do so much to save this land of ours. True, we have gone through three invasions by foreign nations, an armed revolution that was the first in Asia against a European imperialist power, a war against another imperialist power, a world war, martial law, and two people power revolutions, but what we are facing today is a challenge unparalleled in our history.
We face today a battle within. We fought the Spanish, the Americans, the Japanese, and Marcos’s military, but we fought them with our bodies. We fought various environmental and economic forces, but we fought them with our minds. We survived with our bodies and we survived with our minds, but today, the fight is on another front. We live in a country that is losing its soul.
You are called upon to be heroes in this new war against evil. You can be heroes in many ways, but I shall talk of only two general ways, based on where you will be one or two years from now.
One or two years from now, you will be either in another country or still in the Philippines. Let me take first what you are called to do if you go to another country.
If you live and work overseas, you can save the country in two ways. First, you can save it by sending money back to your relatives here. That money will add to the money circulating in the country. With the money that you send back here, goods will be bought and people will be employed to produce or to sell those goods.
But more important than the money is something else that you will send back here. You will send to your relatives here the values that you will learn in your stay abroad.
Let me give just two random examples. If you live in the United States, you will learn that a person’s vote is very, very important. Americans think very hard before they cast their votes. They have a very long process of choosing their candidates. They hold debates. They listen to what their candidates say on television. They do not sell their votes. They make sure that their votes are counted. They hold the people they vote for accountable for their actions in office. If you can impart to your relatives back home that respect for the electoral process, you will save this country from electoral fraud, from election violence, from overspending candidates that have to get back what they spent, from candidates that use government money – our money – to get them elected. With the values that you will learn while you are in the United States and that you can impart to the loved ones you leave here, you can help fight the evil that now surrounds our electoral process.
If you live in the Middle East, you will learn how much we should love God. They call God Allah, but that is just the Arabic word for God. There is only one God, who has many names, as many names as there are languages. Five times a day, no matter how busy they are, no matter what they are doing, the people in the Middle East stop to pray and to thank God for everything good that is happening to them. How many times a day do we Christians in the Philippines thank God for what we have? The evil that we have to fight is not just out there, with the corrupt politicians or government officials, but it is in here, inside us, where God is waiting for us to remember to be thankful. If you share with your relatives back here the kind of prayerful attitude that you will see in the Middle East, you will save your relatives and the rest of us from the evil that is godlessness.
Those are just two examples of how you can save our country if you live outside the country. What will you be called to do if you will live and work inside the Philippines?
Everything. That is the answer – everything. My generation, the older generation, has made a mess of the country. We are responsible for the loss of our forests, the fall of our economy from being the best in Asia to the worst, the deterioration of basic education from being a model for other countries to being so bad that even our public school teachers cannot pass the tests they give to their students, the destruction of our political institutions. Worst of all, we are responsible for the loss of the personal and societal values that made Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Ninoy Aquino, and our own founder Nicanor Reyes Sr. give up their lives for our country. These values are patriotism, integrity, honesty, courage, and if you want to relate it to this great institution from which you now graduate, fortitude, excellence, and uprightness. Those values are gone, or are almost gone, because we, your elders, have failed you. You are called upon to save not just us, not just your own families, but the entire country, by being heroes with exactly those same values.
What can you do to become a hero, to remain a hero? There is one answer. It is not the only answer, but it is the best answer. You must dream. You must dream. You must never, ever let go of the dreams that you now have, as you sit there savoring the moment of graduation. Remember this moment. Remember your dreams. Do not stop dreaming. Do not stop doing something to make those dreams come true. Do not ever, ever lose hope that your dreams will come true. You need to retain the values that you lived while you were here in FEU. You need to remember the knowledge and the wisdom that you learned while you were here in FEU. You need to live your life driven not just by the purpose that you, your family, your country, and your God have set for you, but by the purpose set by your dreams. A dream-driven life is what your life should be.
Let me talk a little bit about purposeful dreaming.
Throughout history, we human beings have tried very hard to define who we are, to tell us what we are, so that we will know what to do with ourselves.
The very first definition we could think of, at least in the Western tradition, was that of the Greek philosopher Aristotle. Aristotle said that we are animals that think, we are rational animals.
This led to a dead end with René Descartes, the French thinker who said the famous words, I think, therefore I am. We were reduced to just being thinkers. Karl Marx came by and disproved this just as famously. According to Marx, we think according to what the people with the money or the guns want us to think.
Another definition that is very old, this time from the Middle East, was that of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus preached that we are animals that love.
As the evangelist Matthew recorded in Chapter 25 of his gospel, Jesus taught his disciples that, at the end of the world, it is not those that think that will be saved, nor those with money or guns, but those that showed their love for the rest of us, by feeding us when we were hungry, by giving us something to drink when we were thirsty, by taking us into their homes when we were homeless, even if they did not know us, by giving us clothes when we were naked, by caring for us when we were sick, by visiting us when we were imprisoned. Human beings,s aid Jesus, are animals that love.
Another definition that is not so old, again from Europe, is that of the French philosopher Henri Bergson. Bergson said that we are animals that laugh.
Today, I want to focus on a definition that is just as valid as those of Aristotle, Jesus, and Bergson.
This definition says that we are animals that dream.
Note that there are two elements in this definition. First, we are animals. We still need to eat, to drink, to propagate, to keep ourselves warm, to have a roof over our heads, to belong to groups, to have power. We still share the same needs as other animals on this planet.
But unlike all the other animals on this planet, we can dream. Dreaming is what distinguishes us from the beasts.
Martin Luther King had a dream that, as he put it, “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” We could follow that dream. We could dream of a country where we are all equal in ways other than race, where those of us that are poor will not be too different from those of us that are rich, where little rich boys and rich girls will be able to join hands with little poor boys and poor girls as sisters and brothers.
John F. Kennedy had a dream of all Americans thinking of what they could do for America, rather than what America could do for them. We could follow that dream. We could also dream of all of us asking what we can do for the Philippines, rather than what the Philippines can do for us.
John Lennon of the Beatles had a dream of the whole world, as he sang it, “all the people living life in peace.” His lyrics still ring true today. He sang, “You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us and the world will live as one.”
The founder of our university, Nicanor Reyes Sr., had a dream. He dreamt of a university where students would learn accounting so well that they could be equal to other accountants in the United States and in the world. He dreamt of a university where Filipinos and Asians would learn how to become professionals, would live their college years in the middle of marvelous works of art, of buildings that had great architecture, of paintings done by great artists. He did not live long enough to find out that Pablo Antonio, the architect of the first FEU buildings, would be declared a National Artist. He did not live long enough to find out that the FEU campus of the 21st century would be full of the works of other National Artists – Fernando Amorsolo’s paintings, Vicente Manansala’s sculpture, Botong Francisco’s murals. He did not live long enough to applaud the achievements of FEU students and teachers that later became National Artists, such as Francisca Aquino, F. Sionil Jose, Alejandro Roces.
The dream of Martin Luther King has been fulfilled in America, with an African American running for president. He may not make it to the White House, but his quest for his dream and the dream of all African Americans has excited not just his fellow African Americans, but many other Americans of different colors. King’s dream has been fulfilled, that people, in his words, “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
The dream of John F. Kennedy has been fulfilled in America, with thousands of Americans giving up their lives in what they think is a glorious mission to liberate other countries from what they think is the scourge of terrorism. It doesn’t really matter if they are right or wrong; the point is that they are willing to die for their country. Today, with recession threatening to bring down their country, Americans are doing what they can for their country, instead of waiting for their country to do something for them.
The dream of John Lennon that there will be no countries has been partly fulfilled, with his music and that of those that followed his lead now transcending the boundaries of countries and truly forming a world with the same tastes and sensibilities. One world, with one music.
The dream of Nicanor Reyes Sr. that FEU will be the best non-sectarian private university in the country has been fulfilled. We are, indeed, now the best, if we consider the scope of our offerings, our reputation among accrediting and assessment organizations, the performance of our graduates not just in licensure examinations but in their careers, and soon, the way you graduates today will bring honor to our school.
Today, you graduates and even you parents and friends stand closer to the fulfilment of your dreams. There will be hard times ahead, as there were hard times for King, Kennedy, Lennon, and Reyes. All of them were murdered because other people did not share their dreams. You do not have to die for your dreams, but if your dreams are going to be worth it, you should be willing to die for them. Because there is no point living if you can no longer dream. We are animals that dream. If we stop dreaming, we revert back to the status of mere animals.
Follow your dream, whatever it is. Do not be discouraged, no matter how impossible it seems to attain your dream. It is the dreaming that makes you human. More important for our country, it is your dreaming that will save our country. Because what we need right now is not technical expertise nor even money nor natural resources nor human resources. What our country needs right now are heroes.
But I have to redefine heroism in the context of our philosophical discussion of what makes human beings human. A human being is an animal that dreams. A hero is a human being that dreams not only for herself or for himself, but for others. Heroes are those that fulfill not just their own dreams, but the dreams of everyone around them. Heroes are those that will follow their dreams and the dreams of everyone else, that will make their own dreams and the dreams of their family, friends, fellow Filipinos, fellow human beings come true.
In the end, that is what makes heroes. Heroes are people that follow their dreams. Heroes are people that make other people’s dreams come true. Heroes are dreamers, doers, leaders. Heroes are you, graduates of a great institution, a great Filipino institution, a great Filipino institution built because of a dream of a great Filipino, our Founder. Be true FEU alumni. Be true to your education. Be true to yourself. Be true to your country.
We need you, graduates, alumni, heroes. I take my hat off to you. I salute you. Congratulations!
04 March 2009
Teaching without textbooks
In the Philippines, we call it “weather-weather.” Elsewhere, it is called the inevitable pendulum swing or regression towards the mean. That worldwide and eternal phenomenon now applies to textbooks.
Before and even after the invention of printing, the greatest teachers in the world did not use textbooks. Think of Confucius, Buddha, Moses, Socrates, Jesus, and Muhammad. These master teachers taught millions of people in person or through their students, but they did not use PowerPoint, podcasts, textbooks, or even blackboards.
The rest of us mere mortal teachers fall back on textbooks as our security blankets during class days when we really have nothing to contribute to the store of human knowledge. We merely reproduce, sometimes in our own words, more often in the words of textbook writers, the ideas of others before us.
Even those of us calling ourselves “professors” very often have nothing to profess. We are mere conduits of knowledge, bankers as some say or, just as appropriately, intellectual property agents, selling other people’s ideas to younger people.
A relatively recent pedagogical theory, called transformative learning, has called attention to the ill-suitedness of textbooks to classroom teaching. Textbooks assume that all learners learn in exactly the same way at exactly the same pace. That, as all teachers know, even us mere mortals, has never been true. Every classroom is unique, and every student is unique. Nobody learns in exactly the same way as anybody else.
If textbooks are, in theory, bad for learners, what do we use instead? A new movement in the United States, still unnamed but that could very well be called “Teaching Without Textbooks,” shows us the answer.
“What would your classroom be like without your students cracking open their oversized textbooks everyday?” asks Laura Milligan in “100+ Resources for Teaching Without Textbooks”. She answers her own question: “Probably a lot more interesting, especially for the kiddies. There are so many other resources out there for teachers to use, online and off, that teaching without textbooks is becoming more and more acceptable. If you don’t believe us, scroll down this list of over 100 different resources – including websites, iPod lectures, and field trips – that will encourage you to toss out your textbooks.”
Eric Pallant of Allegheny College writes of his experience, which he mistakenly thinks is unique: “In the first class of the 2005-2006 school year, after calling roll and introducing myself and co-professor Terry Bensel, I told our students they were participating in an experiment, an experiment that, as far as we knew, no one else had undertaken. They were taking an Introduction to Environmental Science course with no textbook.”
Geoff Ruth of Leadership High School in San Francisco writes, “The students in my general chemistry class almost never open their textbook. My reason: The less I use the book, the more they learn.” He adds a typical comment he got from one of his students: “‘You don’t learn stuff from textbooks,’ one student wrote. ‘You just memorize for a test, then forget it.’”
In a 2007 article of the American Society for Cell Biology, entitled “Teaching without a Textbook: Strategies to Focus Learning on Fundamental Concepts and Scientific Process,” M. W. Klymkowsky summarizes some of the empirical discoveries so far of the movement: “Are textbooks useful, or are they an unnecessary expense or even an obstacle to robust conceptual understanding? Clearly, the answer depends upon course context – what are the goals of the course, how could the textbook be used to achieve these goals, does this use justify the cost of the textbook, and are there more educationally effective or cost-effective alternatives available? I discuss these questions from the perspective of a course I teach: Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB) 1111: Biofundamentals, an introductory lecture and virtual laboratory course that uses online materials rather than a textbook.”
He continues: “There is little research on the impact of textbooks on student learning. Carpenter, Bullock, and Potter, in ‘Textbooks in teaching and learning: the views of students and their teachers’ (2006), provide a description of publisher-funded studies on textbook use in Britain. They outline two key points worth recognizing. First, textbook publishers and authors seem to have little appreciation of how students learn. Second, students are often motivated more by the desire to attain a degree rather an inherent love of, or interest in, course subject matter. At the same time, both students and instructors value textbooks, even though ‘there is no correlation between textbook purchase and the grade achieved.’ Similar results have been reported in U.S. chemistry and physics courses. Most textbooks are not written with current evidence about best teaching and learning practices in mind, so they may be difficult to integrate into the design and presentation of a course that is based on this evidence.”
The key insight of the movement is this: there is no evidence that textbooks aid learning. In this rapidly changing world where even the climate is unpredictable, it is about time we examine our baseless dependence on textbooks. Perhaps there is no need for the Philippine Department of Education (DepEd) to buy textbooks, which, if we are to believe some quarters, are full of errors anyway.
(First published in The Philippine Star, 12 February 2009)
Before and even after the invention of printing, the greatest teachers in the world did not use textbooks. Think of Confucius, Buddha, Moses, Socrates, Jesus, and Muhammad. These master teachers taught millions of people in person or through their students, but they did not use PowerPoint, podcasts, textbooks, or even blackboards.
The rest of us mere mortal teachers fall back on textbooks as our security blankets during class days when we really have nothing to contribute to the store of human knowledge. We merely reproduce, sometimes in our own words, more often in the words of textbook writers, the ideas of others before us.
Even those of us calling ourselves “professors” very often have nothing to profess. We are mere conduits of knowledge, bankers as some say or, just as appropriately, intellectual property agents, selling other people’s ideas to younger people.
A relatively recent pedagogical theory, called transformative learning, has called attention to the ill-suitedness of textbooks to classroom teaching. Textbooks assume that all learners learn in exactly the same way at exactly the same pace. That, as all teachers know, even us mere mortals, has never been true. Every classroom is unique, and every student is unique. Nobody learns in exactly the same way as anybody else.
If textbooks are, in theory, bad for learners, what do we use instead? A new movement in the United States, still unnamed but that could very well be called “Teaching Without Textbooks,” shows us the answer.
“What would your classroom be like without your students cracking open their oversized textbooks everyday?” asks Laura Milligan in “100+ Resources for Teaching Without Textbooks”. She answers her own question: “Probably a lot more interesting, especially for the kiddies. There are so many other resources out there for teachers to use, online and off, that teaching without textbooks is becoming more and more acceptable. If you don’t believe us, scroll down this list of over 100 different resources – including websites, iPod lectures, and field trips – that will encourage you to toss out your textbooks.”
Eric Pallant of Allegheny College writes of his experience, which he mistakenly thinks is unique: “In the first class of the 2005-2006 school year, after calling roll and introducing myself and co-professor Terry Bensel, I told our students they were participating in an experiment, an experiment that, as far as we knew, no one else had undertaken. They were taking an Introduction to Environmental Science course with no textbook.”
Geoff Ruth of Leadership High School in San Francisco writes, “The students in my general chemistry class almost never open their textbook. My reason: The less I use the book, the more they learn.” He adds a typical comment he got from one of his students: “‘You don’t learn stuff from textbooks,’ one student wrote. ‘You just memorize for a test, then forget it.’”
In a 2007 article of the American Society for Cell Biology, entitled “Teaching without a Textbook: Strategies to Focus Learning on Fundamental Concepts and Scientific Process,” M. W. Klymkowsky summarizes some of the empirical discoveries so far of the movement: “Are textbooks useful, or are they an unnecessary expense or even an obstacle to robust conceptual understanding? Clearly, the answer depends upon course context – what are the goals of the course, how could the textbook be used to achieve these goals, does this use justify the cost of the textbook, and are there more educationally effective or cost-effective alternatives available? I discuss these questions from the perspective of a course I teach: Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB) 1111: Biofundamentals, an introductory lecture and virtual laboratory course that uses online materials rather than a textbook.”
He continues: “There is little research on the impact of textbooks on student learning. Carpenter, Bullock, and Potter, in ‘Textbooks in teaching and learning: the views of students and their teachers’ (2006), provide a description of publisher-funded studies on textbook use in Britain. They outline two key points worth recognizing. First, textbook publishers and authors seem to have little appreciation of how students learn. Second, students are often motivated more by the desire to attain a degree rather an inherent love of, or interest in, course subject matter. At the same time, both students and instructors value textbooks, even though ‘there is no correlation between textbook purchase and the grade achieved.’ Similar results have been reported in U.S. chemistry and physics courses. Most textbooks are not written with current evidence about best teaching and learning practices in mind, so they may be difficult to integrate into the design and presentation of a course that is based on this evidence.”
The key insight of the movement is this: there is no evidence that textbooks aid learning. In this rapidly changing world where even the climate is unpredictable, it is about time we examine our baseless dependence on textbooks. Perhaps there is no need for the Philippine Department of Education (DepEd) to buy textbooks, which, if we are to believe some quarters, are full of errors anyway.
(First published in The Philippine Star, 12 February 2009)
16 February 2009
FSGO First Anniversary Statement
FORMER SENIOR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS
1st Anniversary Statement
16 February 2009
A CRY AND A WARNING: EVIL TAKING ROOT IN POWER
We, former senior government officials, rose in alarm and outrage last year when Engineer Jun Lozada was nearly martyred. Many of us were impelled to act against dictatorship by the blood of Ninoy at the tarmac in 1983 and we were again compelled to raise our voices in 2008 at the horror of an attempted kidnapping that could have silenced a whistleblower.
It has been a year since Jun Lozada decided to bear witness to corruption at the level of the couple Gloria and Miguel Arroyo. And sadly it has been yet another year of governing criminally.
We cry at the debasement of our democracy. Mrs. Arroyo rode on the backs of a people outraged with corruption in order to steal the presidency and then used her tenuous hold to lie and cheat for a lengthened stay. Mrs. Arroyo remains president in Malacanang without being legitimately elected into power. That alone makes her an affront to our republic born of a free people rising in revolt against stolen elections in 1986. We cry that power over our government and our collective future remains in the hands of an illegitimate leader.
Our people now look to 2010 as a constitutionally sacred deadline to finally end Mrs. Arroyo’s illegitimate tenure. We warn our people that, left unresisted, illegitimacy has no tenure, that a cheating and lying leader respects no constitutional limits. And we warn our people that the signs are clear: corruption is Mrs. Arroyo’s bribe to remain in power in the past, present, and future.
The corruption we hear, read and, above all, smell everywhere are the wages of evil in power. Corruption is the currency of Mrs. Arroyo’s administration. Corruption is the price of getting positions of authority, the cost of incompetence in those positions, and the inevitable result of tolerating an illegitimate ruler.
Corruption is the fertilizer nourishing Mrs. Arroyo’s evil to deepen its roots in our nation’s government. Corruption buys Congressional inaction to impeachment and possible complicity with tenure‐extending charter change. Corruption is the shopping bags of cash that keep governors and mayors coming to conspiratorial meetings for issuing statements of support. Corruption is the balm for generals’ troubled consciences, at least for those whose hands are still clean enough to retain a conscience. And corruption may eventually buy judicial tolerance to illegal rule and abuse of power, and may even offer incentives strong enough for providing judicial justification to extending that illegitimacy and abuse.
One year after the exposure of the NBN‐ZTE project as a veritable Chinese lauriat of corruption, no Senate report on its investigation has been issued; no Ombudsman case on anyone involved has advanced; no one in the administration has been suspended or fired, except one early retirement to “borjer‐dom” and golf heaven in Wack Wack.
Contrast the black holes of our institutions for accountability with the rest of the world. Over the past year, foreign institutions and governments have hit at Mrs. Arroyo’s corruption much more vigorously than our own government.
•Joc‐joc Bolante, whom Mrs. Arroyo encouraged to escape abroad, was returned to the Senate by US authorities.
• Mrs. Arroyo’s appointed police generals, allowed to travel abroad with obscene amounts of Ein cash in their carry‐on luggage, were exposed by Russian authorities.
• Mrs. Arroyo’s favored public works contractors, colluding with DPWH fixers to defraud oupeople, were formally sanctioned by the World Bank.
• And governments, investors, academics and ordinary people around the world generated perceptions, experiences, and indicators that ranked corruption in the Philippines among the worst in the world.
Filipinos themselves judge Mrs. Arroyo’s administration the most corrupt ever in their memories of other corrupt administrations. Corruption orchestrated by Gloria and Miguel Arroyo is more rampant, more deep‐seated, larger scale, and ultimately more nefarious than anything we Filipinos have experienced. It uses corruption to keep power and uses power to pursue corruption in a self‐reinforcing racket that perpetuates evil in power.
In this year of global crisis, nations all over the world are turning to their governments to protect their collective welfare and sustain their productive capacities against the onslaught of a terrible global contraction in financial resources and economic demand. The Philippines cannot escape the ravages of the ongoing global decline in credit, investment, production, and consumption. Unfortunately, our government under Mrs. Arroyo offers nothing. To our fears of economic insecurity, Mrs. Arroyo mouths assurances as false as “I will not run” in 2002 to “I am sorry” in 2005. To our hopes of public action to mitigate private pains, Mrs. Arroyo lays out more pork, more patronage, and yet more opportunities for corruption that enriches only her coterie of conspirators against our democracy.
We are witnessing the inevitable consequences of corruption becoming the currency of governing. Selfish and self‐serving motivations crowd out rule of law, devotion to public good, and pursuit of sustainable development. Everything is considered from the standpoint of what can be stolen by those in power; hence, all decisions and actions are driven by corruption. For example, corruption infests the enforcement of illegal drug laws, then infests the criminal justice system where such cases are brought, and infests public policy where Mrs. Arroyo as anti‐drug mini‐czar orders drug tests of students as prime measure to fight the breakdown of law enforcement against drug lords.
We will not have a useful or effective government unless we root out corruption in its brains, muscles, and bones. And the tumor that is Mrs. Arroyo’s evil at the center of power is growing daily, corrupting everything in its path to stay in power today and tomorrow, and tomorrow. And yet another year of governing criminally.
1st Anniversary Statement
16 February 2009
A CRY AND A WARNING: EVIL TAKING ROOT IN POWER
We, former senior government officials, rose in alarm and outrage last year when Engineer Jun Lozada was nearly martyred. Many of us were impelled to act against dictatorship by the blood of Ninoy at the tarmac in 1983 and we were again compelled to raise our voices in 2008 at the horror of an attempted kidnapping that could have silenced a whistleblower.
It has been a year since Jun Lozada decided to bear witness to corruption at the level of the couple Gloria and Miguel Arroyo. And sadly it has been yet another year of governing criminally.
We cry at the debasement of our democracy. Mrs. Arroyo rode on the backs of a people outraged with corruption in order to steal the presidency and then used her tenuous hold to lie and cheat for a lengthened stay. Mrs. Arroyo remains president in Malacanang without being legitimately elected into power. That alone makes her an affront to our republic born of a free people rising in revolt against stolen elections in 1986. We cry that power over our government and our collective future remains in the hands of an illegitimate leader.
Our people now look to 2010 as a constitutionally sacred deadline to finally end Mrs. Arroyo’s illegitimate tenure. We warn our people that, left unresisted, illegitimacy has no tenure, that a cheating and lying leader respects no constitutional limits. And we warn our people that the signs are clear: corruption is Mrs. Arroyo’s bribe to remain in power in the past, present, and future.
The corruption we hear, read and, above all, smell everywhere are the wages of evil in power. Corruption is the currency of Mrs. Arroyo’s administration. Corruption is the price of getting positions of authority, the cost of incompetence in those positions, and the inevitable result of tolerating an illegitimate ruler.
Corruption is the fertilizer nourishing Mrs. Arroyo’s evil to deepen its roots in our nation’s government. Corruption buys Congressional inaction to impeachment and possible complicity with tenure‐extending charter change. Corruption is the shopping bags of cash that keep governors and mayors coming to conspiratorial meetings for issuing statements of support. Corruption is the balm for generals’ troubled consciences, at least for those whose hands are still clean enough to retain a conscience. And corruption may eventually buy judicial tolerance to illegal rule and abuse of power, and may even offer incentives strong enough for providing judicial justification to extending that illegitimacy and abuse.
One year after the exposure of the NBN‐ZTE project as a veritable Chinese lauriat of corruption, no Senate report on its investigation has been issued; no Ombudsman case on anyone involved has advanced; no one in the administration has been suspended or fired, except one early retirement to “borjer‐dom” and golf heaven in Wack Wack.
Contrast the black holes of our institutions for accountability with the rest of the world. Over the past year, foreign institutions and governments have hit at Mrs. Arroyo’s corruption much more vigorously than our own government.
•Joc‐joc Bolante, whom Mrs. Arroyo encouraged to escape abroad, was returned to the Senate by US authorities.
• Mrs. Arroyo’s appointed police generals, allowed to travel abroad with obscene amounts of Ein cash in their carry‐on luggage, were exposed by Russian authorities.
• Mrs. Arroyo’s favored public works contractors, colluding with DPWH fixers to defraud oupeople, were formally sanctioned by the World Bank.
• And governments, investors, academics and ordinary people around the world generated perceptions, experiences, and indicators that ranked corruption in the Philippines among the worst in the world.
Filipinos themselves judge Mrs. Arroyo’s administration the most corrupt ever in their memories of other corrupt administrations. Corruption orchestrated by Gloria and Miguel Arroyo is more rampant, more deep‐seated, larger scale, and ultimately more nefarious than anything we Filipinos have experienced. It uses corruption to keep power and uses power to pursue corruption in a self‐reinforcing racket that perpetuates evil in power.
In this year of global crisis, nations all over the world are turning to their governments to protect their collective welfare and sustain their productive capacities against the onslaught of a terrible global contraction in financial resources and economic demand. The Philippines cannot escape the ravages of the ongoing global decline in credit, investment, production, and consumption. Unfortunately, our government under Mrs. Arroyo offers nothing. To our fears of economic insecurity, Mrs. Arroyo mouths assurances as false as “I will not run” in 2002 to “I am sorry” in 2005. To our hopes of public action to mitigate private pains, Mrs. Arroyo lays out more pork, more patronage, and yet more opportunities for corruption that enriches only her coterie of conspirators against our democracy.
We are witnessing the inevitable consequences of corruption becoming the currency of governing. Selfish and self‐serving motivations crowd out rule of law, devotion to public good, and pursuit of sustainable development. Everything is considered from the standpoint of what can be stolen by those in power; hence, all decisions and actions are driven by corruption. For example, corruption infests the enforcement of illegal drug laws, then infests the criminal justice system where such cases are brought, and infests public policy where Mrs. Arroyo as anti‐drug mini‐czar orders drug tests of students as prime measure to fight the breakdown of law enforcement against drug lords.
We will not have a useful or effective government unless we root out corruption in its brains, muscles, and bones. And the tumor that is Mrs. Arroyo’s evil at the center of power is growing daily, corrupting everything in its path to stay in power today and tomorrow, and tomorrow. And yet another year of governing criminally.
09 February 2009
Taboan
There will be a huge meeting of Philippine writers this week. Here are the details:
TABOAN: Philippine International Writers Festival 2009
11 to 13 FEBRUARY 2009
University of the Philippines Diliman (Feb 11)
Ateneo de Manila University (Feb 12)
Cubao Expo (Feb 13)
DAY 1, FEBRUARY 11, WEDNESDAY
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
9:00AM | OPENING PROGRAM
Venue: Pulungang Claro M. Recto, Bulwagang Rizal
Welcome Remarks
• UP Diliman Chancellor Sergio S. Cao
• NCCA Chair Vilma L. Labrador
• Festival Director Ricardo M. de Ungria
• Festival Coordinator Jose Y. Dalisay, Jr.
PHILIPPINE LITERATURE TODAY. The keynote address, a synoptic overview of where we’ve been and where we are, taking into account our literature in Filipino, English, and the regional languages; Philippine literature in the 21st century; and Philippine literature in the Asian and global context. To be delivered by National Artist Francisco Sionil Jose.
Venue: Pulungang Claro M. Recto, Bulwagang Rizal, UPD
9:45AM | A TRIBUTE TO EDITH TIEMPO. The tribute to National Artist Edith L. Tiempo is a short poetry reading by Merlie Alunan, Dinah Roma, and Ronald Baytan, who all attended the Dumaguete National Workshop and have been influenced by Tiempo’s poetics. To date, Edith Tiempo is the sole woman National Artist for Literature.
Moderator: Marjorie Evasco
Venue: Pulungang Claro M. Recto, Bulwagang Rizal, UPD
10:30AM | GANITO KAMI NOON: WRITING THROUGH THE DECADES. A plenary panel discussion to set the tone for all other panel discussions. A representative each from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s can talk about the conditions for writing and publishing in their eras and how things have changed, or maybe not. And where do we go from here?
Panelists: Elmer Ordonez (1950s), National Artist Virgilio S. Almario (1960s), José Pete Lacaba (1970s), Marjorie Evasco (1980s), Angelo Lacuesta (1990s)
Moderator: José Y. Dalisay, Jr.
Pulungang Claro M. Recto, Bulwagang Rizal, UPD
1:30PM | ICONS OF THE NEW CENTURY: WRITERS WHOM WRITERS READ. Who are you reading and why? Who's your literary daddy (or mommy)? A discussion of literary influences and how they are shaping contemporary Philippine literature.
Panelists: Rebecca Añonuevo, Franklin Cimatu, Carlos Cortes, Francis Macansantos, Katrina Tuvera
Moderator: Gémino H. Abad
Venue: CAL New Building (CNB), Room 508
WRITING FOR A LIVING. What's writing like as a profession in the Philippines? What writing jobs pay, and how can writers get them? How should writers deal with writing commissions? What about copyrights and contracts? How do we break into the global market and find and deal with agents?
Panelists: Vietnamese writer Nguyen Bao Chan, Tony Enriquez, Kragi Garcia, Luis Katigbak, Charlson Ong, Alfred Yuson
Moderator: José Y. Dalisay, Jr.
Venue: CAL-AVR, 2/F Bulwagang Rizal, UPD
THE CREATIVE WRITING CLASSROOM. The teaching of creative writing, for the teachers among us: challenges, strategies, approaches, tips and tricks in the creative writing classroom.
Penelists: Merlie Alunan, Conchitina Cruz, Jun Cruz Reyes, Macario Tiu, Ricardo de Ungria
Moderator: Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo
Venue: CNB Inquirer Room 201
WORKSHOPPING THE WORKSHOP, ORGANIZING WRITERS. A review of the Dumaguete, Baguio, and Iligan workshops, plus maybe the biggest school-based ones, and how they grew. A sharing of best practices, as well as a discussion of common problems and situations. This panel can also deal with writers’ organizations, centers, institutes, and programs.
Panelists: Vicente Groyon III, Christine Godinez-Ortega, V.E. Carmelo D. Nadera Jr., Benilda Santos, Anthony Tan
Moderator: Lito Zulueta
Venue: CNB Rm 309
3:30 PM | WRITING OFF-CENTER: THE REGIONAL EXPERIENCE. How goes creative writing and literary publishing outside of Metro Manila? Have new centers of literary activity emerged, and what are the keys to their success? What does it take to promote writing from the regions to broader audiences?
Panelists: John Bengan, Jose Jason Chancoco, Rey Duque, David Genotiva, Alice Tan-Gonzales
Moderator: Ricardo de Ungria
Venue: CNB Inquirer Room 201
ATBP: WRITING OFF THE MAINSTREAM. Gay/lesbian literature, chick lit, "spec fic", Chinoy lit , and all that jazz. What alternatives exist to straight, realist, mainstream lit? Is this kind of "pigeonholing" good or bad—or, when is it good, and when is it bad?
Panelists: Dean Francis Alfar, Jhoanna Cruz, J. Neil C. Garcia, Jaime An Lim, Tara FT. Sering
Moderator: Danton Remoto
Venue: CNB Room 309
FILIPINO-NESS IN THE GLOBAL AGE. A perennial hot topic in the blogosphere. How can "Filipino-ness" be defined? Is it an absolute necessity in this age of globalization? Is "nation" even a relevant concept? How can this be manifested in a literary work? Why don’t we seem to see enough of such central elements of Filipino life as crime, sex, and humor in our literature, or is that only in English?
Panelists: Efren Abueg, Leoncio Deriada, Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, Resil Mojares, Timothy Montes
Moderator: Isagani R. Cruz
Venue: CAL-AVR
DAY 2, February 12, Thursday, Ateneo de Manila University
9:00AM | PLENARY
Venue: Leong Hall Auditorium
Program:
Opening Remarks, Prof. Ricardo de Ungria, Commissioner for the Arts, NCCA
Welcome Address, Dr. Ma. Luz Vilches, Dean of the School of Humanities
Message, Dr. Antonette Palma-Angeles, Academic Vice-President, AdMU
A Concise History of 150 Years of Ateneo Writing
Open Forum
Tribute Proper
Screen Presentation on Emmanuel S. Torres and Reading of Citation
Screen Presentation on Gregorio C. Brillantes and Reading of Citation
Response of the Honorees
Closing Remarks, Dr. Ma. Luisa Torres Reyes, Chair, Dept. of English
12:05PM | LUNCH BREAK
Venue: Leong Hall Roof Deck
1:00 PM | Ateneo Gallery and Library Tour
2:00 PM | PARALLEL SESSIONS
THE POET-CRITIC. The issue of how art and criticism interface has been
a central topic even in the creative writing curricula of top
universities worldwide. Whether our writers have found the interface
uneasy or comfortable, consciously or unconsciously, it has shaped the
craft and aesthetics of generations of authors in the Philippines.
Panelists: Gemino H. Abad, J. Neil Garcia, Allan Popa, Jun Cruz Reyes,
and Thai fictionist/screenwriter Prabda Yoon
Moderator: D(anilo) Francisco (M) Reyes
Venue: Social Science Conference Rooms 1 & 2
TEXT AND CONTEXT. The encounter between art and politics, writing and
ideology, or aesthetics and social engagement, has been a significant
consideration in countries like the Philippines as it has been said to
make for bad writing and good politics/bad politics and good writing.
Thus, these binary categories have been considered mutually exclusive
practices by some writers, but deemed mutually constitutive
commitments by writers.
Panelists: Isagani R. Cruz, National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera,
Danton Remoto, Roland Tolentino
Moderator: Oscar Campomanes
Venue: Social Science Conference Rooms 3 & 4
PUBLISHING FOR THE FUTURE. No literature can prosper without
publishing, but publishing itself is taking on new forms and
challenges in this new century, such as online publishing and print on
demand. What directions will Philippine literary publishing and
Philippine literature itself take in the foreseeable future? What can
the Philippine academic and commercial publishers do to promote
literature here and abroad? Are there alternatives to mainstream
publishing that can be explored, and can they be commercially viable?
Panelists: Karina Bolasco, Adam David, Antonio Hidalgo, Esther Pacheco,
Rofel Brion
Moderator: Maricor Baytion
Venue: NGF Conference Room, G/F De La Costa Hall
3:30 PM | MERIENDA
4:00 PM | PARALLEL SESSIONS
FEMINISM IN OUR MIDST. The question of how women writers write under
conditions quite distinct from men writers has been a source of
dynamism and controversy in both their works and the criticism on
their work. This has been a point of contention in recent literary
history as some women writers organize themselves as women writers,
weaving literature and sharing life.
Panelists: Rica Bolipata-Santos, Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, Priscilla
Macansantos, Aida F. Santos, Dinah Roma-Sianturi, Hope Yu
Moderator: Benilda Santos
Venue: Social Science Conference Rooms 1 & 2
LITERATURE IN ACTION. Non-canonical texts abound in contexts like the
Philippines in which literature?s energies come from places quite
apart from "Literature." Foremost among this type of literary
production is the whole range of performative practices which create
cultural "events" as opposed to literary "art." Most prominent
examples of this range from avant-garde forms to so-called "agit-prop"
art in which visual and/or performance artists and educational and
community theater groups like PETA have been making a splash in the
international art and academic scene since the 80s and 90s.
Panelists: Michael Coroza, Steven Patrick Fernandez, Servando Halili,
Bonifacio P. Ilagan, Glenn Mas
Moderator: Gary Devilles
Venue: Social Science Conference Rooms 3 & 4
CHILDREN?S LITERATURE. In the Philippines, it has been said that the
reading fare of Filipino children continues to be dominated by
Children?s literature from the West, as evidenced by the children's
books usually on display in major book shops. Nevertheless, it can be
argued that for decades now, significant headway has been made in
providing alternative reading materials for Filipino children by
publishing houses like Aklat Adarna and noted Filipino authors and
published locally in English, Filipino and other Philippine languages.
What genres have been developed in children?s literature by Filipinos?
Are these genres a mere imitation of the western models? Has the
production been enough to begin to draw up a canon of children?s
literature in the Philippines? What has been the impact of children's
literature on the readers? What role must children's literature play
in the Philippines?
Panelists: Cyan Abad-Jugo, Christine Bellen, Jean Lee Patindol, Ramon
C. Sunico
Moderator: Jerry Respeto
Venue: NGF Conference Room, G/F De La Costa Hall
5:30 PM | DINNER
Venue: Leong Hall Roof Deck
Closing Remarks, Dr. Assunta Cuyegkeng, Vice President, Ateneo de
Manila Univeristy-Loyola Schools
DAY 3, FEBRUARY 13, FRIDAY
Cubao X, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City
9:30AM | PLENARY
Venue: Cubao X
Hosts: Angelo R. Lacuesta, Festival Coordinator; Joel Toledo, Festival Assistant Coordinator
10:00PM | PARALLEL SESSIONS
HOME, ROAM, AND AWAY. Publishing locally versus publishing abroad. How does place of publication—or place of writing—affect or define your audience, or your career or your work? This should also function as a guide for those who seek international publication: what are the challenges and what are the chances?
Panelists: Vicente G. Groyon III, Mookie Katigbak
Moderator: Lourd Ernest De Veyra
Venue: Mogwai 2
THE END OF PRINT. Web-based publishing, traditional print publishing, and print-on-demand: the meaning of publication has multiplied so much these days. Has the meaning of quality, or rigor, or intent changed as well? How has this affected today’s writer? Has he (or must he) achieve convergence, or should there be dividing lines?
Panelists: Roberto Añonuevo, Adam David, Jean Claire Dy, Luis Katigbak, Edgar Samar
Moderator: Dean Francis Alfar
Venue: Pablo
WRITE TO LIFE. Writing to live, or living to write? Many literary writers have commercial writing careers—but what about other lines of work? And what of the lines that divide work and writing? This discussion covers all sorts of jobs writers must take—and the amount of confrontation and compromise writers must endure. It will also cover tips and tricks to avoid burnout and “multitasking hell.”
Panelists: Josua Cabrera, Dominique Cimafranca, Mikael de Lara Co, Ramil Gulle, Victor Dennis T. Nierva
Moderator: Frank Cimatu
Venue: Kolektib 1
LINGO NG WIKA. Language and authenticity in Philippine literary practice—it’s an old argument. So should we be done with it, then? Or shouldn’t we? (This conversation covers all Filipino languages.)
Panelists: Genevieve Asenjo, John Barrios, Jaime Jesus Borlagdan, Jose Jason Changcoco, Jason Laxamana, Glen Mas, Voltaire Oyzon, John Iremil Teodoro
Moderator: Rica Bolipata-Santos
Venue: Kolektib 2
GLOBAL WARMING. A plenary discussion over lunch featuring Asian and Filipino writers who have gone “global.” Our international panelists will discuss the challenges and rewards of writing in their local language and still achieving international recognition and popularity. The panel will also discuss practical tips on international grants, fellowships and exchange programs.
Panelists: Nguyan Bao Chan, Conchitina Cruz, Dinah Roma-Sianturi, Prabda Yoon
Moderator: Angelo R. Lacuesta
2:00PM | PARALLEL SESSIONS
PURO FORMA. The formal versus the experimental in poetry—is there a conflict? Young poets discuss the issues (and, inevitably, the non-issues) that abound.
Panelists: Michael Coroza, Conchitina Cruz, J. Neil C. Garcia, Mookie Katigbak, Angelo Suarez
Moderator: Allan Popa
Venue: Mogwai 2
MOVING UP IN THE WORD. Building the literary career—does it still have the same requirements as ten years ago, or are there new ways to get that break? Is the PalancaTM Award still the quickest path to writerhood? Or is that old-school thinking? What’s a literary career anyway?
Panelists: Efmer Agustin, Janice Bagawi, Arifah Jamil, Junley Lazaga, Leonila Lopido, Monica Macansantos, Harold Mercurio
Moderator: Mikael Co
Venue: Pablo
FICTIONAL SHOWDOWN. This is a friendly showdown between the realms speculative fiction and “non-speculative” fiction—its advocates, practitioners and its subject matter. Also up for discussion: attempted definitions, blurred boundaries and common goals.
Panelists: Dean Francis Alfar, Adam David, Jonathan J. Siason, Alvin B. Yapan, Prabda Yoon
Moderator: Ian Casocot
Venue: Kolektib 1
4:00PM | PARALLEL SESSIONS
ALL ABOUT MY OTHER. The I versus “otherness” in poetry: how do they figure in your work? Insights, questions, problems and answers on this mind-boggling topic.
Panelists: Ronald Baytan, Kristian S. Cordero, Conchitina Cruz, Larry Ypil
Moderators: Carlomar Daoana, Dinah Roma-Sianturi
Venue: Mogwai 2
UNSCRIPTED. Playwrights, screenwriters and writers in general discuss the difficulties of writing for the stage and screen—from the issue (or non-issue) of language and the challenges of the craft, to the long road to production and the burden of having to win the audience.
Panelists: Jhoanna Cruz, Glen Mas, John Iremil Teodoro
Moderator: Jun Lana
Venue: Pablo
THE YOUNG AND THE LITLESS. Is the Filipino youth worth writing for? In the age of the Internet and digital home entertainment, Filipino children and young adults have so much to see, hear and read—without having to open a book. How does this affect the youngest generation of the Filipino literary audience? How does this affect the Filipino writer?
Panelists: Christine Bellen, Jean Lee Patindol
Moderator: Tara FT Sering
Venue: Kolektib 1
THE STORY OF OUR LIVES. Short story writers and novelists discuss the concerns of today’s fictionist—from language and style to themes and subject matter. Also to be discussed: getting published internationally, and the problem and the burden of writing long-form work.
Panelists: Vincente Groyon III, Arifah Jamil, Luis Katigbak, Januar Yap, Alvin B. Yapan
Moderators: Genevieve Asenjo, John Bengan
Venue: Kolektib 2
6:30PM | PLENARY: DEAR NCCA. What can the NCCA do for the younger or emerging writer? This discussion hopes to come up with a wishlist for the NCCA, covering specific measures of support for the Filipino writer.
Moderators: Angelo R. Lacuesta, Joel Toledo
Venue: Mogwai
8:00PM | CLOSING CEREMONIES
• Address, National Artist Virgilio S. Almario
• NCCA Resolutions
• Response and Closing Address, Ricardo de Ungria
FELLOWSHIP
TABOAN: Philippine International Writers Festival 2009
11 to 13 FEBRUARY 2009
University of the Philippines Diliman (Feb 11)
Ateneo de Manila University (Feb 12)
Cubao Expo (Feb 13)
DAY 1, FEBRUARY 11, WEDNESDAY
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
9:00AM | OPENING PROGRAM
Venue: Pulungang Claro M. Recto, Bulwagang Rizal
Welcome Remarks
• UP Diliman Chancellor Sergio S. Cao
• NCCA Chair Vilma L. Labrador
• Festival Director Ricardo M. de Ungria
• Festival Coordinator Jose Y. Dalisay, Jr.
PHILIPPINE LITERATURE TODAY. The keynote address, a synoptic overview of where we’ve been and where we are, taking into account our literature in Filipino, English, and the regional languages; Philippine literature in the 21st century; and Philippine literature in the Asian and global context. To be delivered by National Artist Francisco Sionil Jose.
Venue: Pulungang Claro M. Recto, Bulwagang Rizal, UPD
9:45AM | A TRIBUTE TO EDITH TIEMPO. The tribute to National Artist Edith L. Tiempo is a short poetry reading by Merlie Alunan, Dinah Roma, and Ronald Baytan, who all attended the Dumaguete National Workshop and have been influenced by Tiempo’s poetics. To date, Edith Tiempo is the sole woman National Artist for Literature.
Moderator: Marjorie Evasco
Venue: Pulungang Claro M. Recto, Bulwagang Rizal, UPD
10:30AM | GANITO KAMI NOON: WRITING THROUGH THE DECADES. A plenary panel discussion to set the tone for all other panel discussions. A representative each from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s can talk about the conditions for writing and publishing in their eras and how things have changed, or maybe not. And where do we go from here?
Panelists: Elmer Ordonez (1950s), National Artist Virgilio S. Almario (1960s), José Pete Lacaba (1970s), Marjorie Evasco (1980s), Angelo Lacuesta (1990s)
Moderator: José Y. Dalisay, Jr.
Pulungang Claro M. Recto, Bulwagang Rizal, UPD
1:30PM | ICONS OF THE NEW CENTURY: WRITERS WHOM WRITERS READ. Who are you reading and why? Who's your literary daddy (or mommy)? A discussion of literary influences and how they are shaping contemporary Philippine literature.
Panelists: Rebecca Añonuevo, Franklin Cimatu, Carlos Cortes, Francis Macansantos, Katrina Tuvera
Moderator: Gémino H. Abad
Venue: CAL New Building (CNB), Room 508
WRITING FOR A LIVING. What's writing like as a profession in the Philippines? What writing jobs pay, and how can writers get them? How should writers deal with writing commissions? What about copyrights and contracts? How do we break into the global market and find and deal with agents?
Panelists: Vietnamese writer Nguyen Bao Chan, Tony Enriquez, Kragi Garcia, Luis Katigbak, Charlson Ong, Alfred Yuson
Moderator: José Y. Dalisay, Jr.
Venue: CAL-AVR, 2/F Bulwagang Rizal, UPD
THE CREATIVE WRITING CLASSROOM. The teaching of creative writing, for the teachers among us: challenges, strategies, approaches, tips and tricks in the creative writing classroom.
Penelists: Merlie Alunan, Conchitina Cruz, Jun Cruz Reyes, Macario Tiu, Ricardo de Ungria
Moderator: Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo
Venue: CNB Inquirer Room 201
WORKSHOPPING THE WORKSHOP, ORGANIZING WRITERS. A review of the Dumaguete, Baguio, and Iligan workshops, plus maybe the biggest school-based ones, and how they grew. A sharing of best practices, as well as a discussion of common problems and situations. This panel can also deal with writers’ organizations, centers, institutes, and programs.
Panelists: Vicente Groyon III, Christine Godinez-Ortega, V.E. Carmelo D. Nadera Jr., Benilda Santos, Anthony Tan
Moderator: Lito Zulueta
Venue: CNB Rm 309
3:30 PM | WRITING OFF-CENTER: THE REGIONAL EXPERIENCE. How goes creative writing and literary publishing outside of Metro Manila? Have new centers of literary activity emerged, and what are the keys to their success? What does it take to promote writing from the regions to broader audiences?
Panelists: John Bengan, Jose Jason Chancoco, Rey Duque, David Genotiva, Alice Tan-Gonzales
Moderator: Ricardo de Ungria
Venue: CNB Inquirer Room 201
ATBP: WRITING OFF THE MAINSTREAM. Gay/lesbian literature, chick lit, "spec fic", Chinoy lit , and all that jazz. What alternatives exist to straight, realist, mainstream lit? Is this kind of "pigeonholing" good or bad—or, when is it good, and when is it bad?
Panelists: Dean Francis Alfar, Jhoanna Cruz, J. Neil C. Garcia, Jaime An Lim, Tara FT. Sering
Moderator: Danton Remoto
Venue: CNB Room 309
FILIPINO-NESS IN THE GLOBAL AGE. A perennial hot topic in the blogosphere. How can "Filipino-ness" be defined? Is it an absolute necessity in this age of globalization? Is "nation" even a relevant concept? How can this be manifested in a literary work? Why don’t we seem to see enough of such central elements of Filipino life as crime, sex, and humor in our literature, or is that only in English?
Panelists: Efren Abueg, Leoncio Deriada, Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, Resil Mojares, Timothy Montes
Moderator: Isagani R. Cruz
Venue: CAL-AVR
DAY 2, February 12, Thursday, Ateneo de Manila University
9:00AM | PLENARY
Venue: Leong Hall Auditorium
Program:
Opening Remarks, Prof. Ricardo de Ungria, Commissioner for the Arts, NCCA
Welcome Address, Dr. Ma. Luz Vilches, Dean of the School of Humanities
Message, Dr. Antonette Palma-Angeles, Academic Vice-President, AdMU
A Concise History of 150 Years of Ateneo Writing
Open Forum
Tribute Proper
Screen Presentation on Emmanuel S. Torres and Reading of Citation
Screen Presentation on Gregorio C. Brillantes and Reading of Citation
Response of the Honorees
Closing Remarks, Dr. Ma. Luisa Torres Reyes, Chair, Dept. of English
12:05PM | LUNCH BREAK
Venue: Leong Hall Roof Deck
1:00 PM | Ateneo Gallery and Library Tour
2:00 PM | PARALLEL SESSIONS
THE POET-CRITIC. The issue of how art and criticism interface has been
a central topic even in the creative writing curricula of top
universities worldwide. Whether our writers have found the interface
uneasy or comfortable, consciously or unconsciously, it has shaped the
craft and aesthetics of generations of authors in the Philippines.
Panelists: Gemino H. Abad, J. Neil Garcia, Allan Popa, Jun Cruz Reyes,
and Thai fictionist/screenwriter Prabda Yoon
Moderator: D(anilo) Francisco (M) Reyes
Venue: Social Science Conference Rooms 1 & 2
TEXT AND CONTEXT. The encounter between art and politics, writing and
ideology, or aesthetics and social engagement, has been a significant
consideration in countries like the Philippines as it has been said to
make for bad writing and good politics/bad politics and good writing.
Thus, these binary categories have been considered mutually exclusive
practices by some writers, but deemed mutually constitutive
commitments by writers.
Panelists: Isagani R. Cruz, National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera,
Danton Remoto, Roland Tolentino
Moderator: Oscar Campomanes
Venue: Social Science Conference Rooms 3 & 4
PUBLISHING FOR THE FUTURE. No literature can prosper without
publishing, but publishing itself is taking on new forms and
challenges in this new century, such as online publishing and print on
demand. What directions will Philippine literary publishing and
Philippine literature itself take in the foreseeable future? What can
the Philippine academic and commercial publishers do to promote
literature here and abroad? Are there alternatives to mainstream
publishing that can be explored, and can they be commercially viable?
Panelists: Karina Bolasco, Adam David, Antonio Hidalgo, Esther Pacheco,
Rofel Brion
Moderator: Maricor Baytion
Venue: NGF Conference Room, G/F De La Costa Hall
3:30 PM | MERIENDA
4:00 PM | PARALLEL SESSIONS
FEMINISM IN OUR MIDST. The question of how women writers write under
conditions quite distinct from men writers has been a source of
dynamism and controversy in both their works and the criticism on
their work. This has been a point of contention in recent literary
history as some women writers organize themselves as women writers,
weaving literature and sharing life.
Panelists: Rica Bolipata-Santos, Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo, Priscilla
Macansantos, Aida F. Santos, Dinah Roma-Sianturi, Hope Yu
Moderator: Benilda Santos
Venue: Social Science Conference Rooms 1 & 2
LITERATURE IN ACTION. Non-canonical texts abound in contexts like the
Philippines in which literature?s energies come from places quite
apart from "Literature." Foremost among this type of literary
production is the whole range of performative practices which create
cultural "events" as opposed to literary "art." Most prominent
examples of this range from avant-garde forms to so-called "agit-prop"
art in which visual and/or performance artists and educational and
community theater groups like PETA have been making a splash in the
international art and academic scene since the 80s and 90s.
Panelists: Michael Coroza, Steven Patrick Fernandez, Servando Halili,
Bonifacio P. Ilagan, Glenn Mas
Moderator: Gary Devilles
Venue: Social Science Conference Rooms 3 & 4
CHILDREN?S LITERATURE. In the Philippines, it has been said that the
reading fare of Filipino children continues to be dominated by
Children?s literature from the West, as evidenced by the children's
books usually on display in major book shops. Nevertheless, it can be
argued that for decades now, significant headway has been made in
providing alternative reading materials for Filipino children by
publishing houses like Aklat Adarna and noted Filipino authors and
published locally in English, Filipino and other Philippine languages.
What genres have been developed in children?s literature by Filipinos?
Are these genres a mere imitation of the western models? Has the
production been enough to begin to draw up a canon of children?s
literature in the Philippines? What has been the impact of children's
literature on the readers? What role must children's literature play
in the Philippines?
Panelists: Cyan Abad-Jugo, Christine Bellen, Jean Lee Patindol, Ramon
C. Sunico
Moderator: Jerry Respeto
Venue: NGF Conference Room, G/F De La Costa Hall
5:30 PM | DINNER
Venue: Leong Hall Roof Deck
Closing Remarks, Dr. Assunta Cuyegkeng, Vice President, Ateneo de
Manila Univeristy-Loyola Schools
DAY 3, FEBRUARY 13, FRIDAY
Cubao X, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City
9:30AM | PLENARY
Venue: Cubao X
Hosts: Angelo R. Lacuesta, Festival Coordinator; Joel Toledo, Festival Assistant Coordinator
10:00PM | PARALLEL SESSIONS
HOME, ROAM, AND AWAY. Publishing locally versus publishing abroad. How does place of publication—or place of writing—affect or define your audience, or your career or your work? This should also function as a guide for those who seek international publication: what are the challenges and what are the chances?
Panelists: Vicente G. Groyon III, Mookie Katigbak
Moderator: Lourd Ernest De Veyra
Venue: Mogwai 2
THE END OF PRINT. Web-based publishing, traditional print publishing, and print-on-demand: the meaning of publication has multiplied so much these days. Has the meaning of quality, or rigor, or intent changed as well? How has this affected today’s writer? Has he (or must he) achieve convergence, or should there be dividing lines?
Panelists: Roberto Añonuevo, Adam David, Jean Claire Dy, Luis Katigbak, Edgar Samar
Moderator: Dean Francis Alfar
Venue: Pablo
WRITE TO LIFE. Writing to live, or living to write? Many literary writers have commercial writing careers—but what about other lines of work? And what of the lines that divide work and writing? This discussion covers all sorts of jobs writers must take—and the amount of confrontation and compromise writers must endure. It will also cover tips and tricks to avoid burnout and “multitasking hell.”
Panelists: Josua Cabrera, Dominique Cimafranca, Mikael de Lara Co, Ramil Gulle, Victor Dennis T. Nierva
Moderator: Frank Cimatu
Venue: Kolektib 1
LINGO NG WIKA. Language and authenticity in Philippine literary practice—it’s an old argument. So should we be done with it, then? Or shouldn’t we? (This conversation covers all Filipino languages.)
Panelists: Genevieve Asenjo, John Barrios, Jaime Jesus Borlagdan, Jose Jason Changcoco, Jason Laxamana, Glen Mas, Voltaire Oyzon, John Iremil Teodoro
Moderator: Rica Bolipata-Santos
Venue: Kolektib 2
GLOBAL WARMING. A plenary discussion over lunch featuring Asian and Filipino writers who have gone “global.” Our international panelists will discuss the challenges and rewards of writing in their local language and still achieving international recognition and popularity. The panel will also discuss practical tips on international grants, fellowships and exchange programs.
Panelists: Nguyan Bao Chan, Conchitina Cruz, Dinah Roma-Sianturi, Prabda Yoon
Moderator: Angelo R. Lacuesta
2:00PM | PARALLEL SESSIONS
PURO FORMA. The formal versus the experimental in poetry—is there a conflict? Young poets discuss the issues (and, inevitably, the non-issues) that abound.
Panelists: Michael Coroza, Conchitina Cruz, J. Neil C. Garcia, Mookie Katigbak, Angelo Suarez
Moderator: Allan Popa
Venue: Mogwai 2
MOVING UP IN THE WORD. Building the literary career—does it still have the same requirements as ten years ago, or are there new ways to get that break? Is the PalancaTM Award still the quickest path to writerhood? Or is that old-school thinking? What’s a literary career anyway?
Panelists: Efmer Agustin, Janice Bagawi, Arifah Jamil, Junley Lazaga, Leonila Lopido, Monica Macansantos, Harold Mercurio
Moderator: Mikael Co
Venue: Pablo
FICTIONAL SHOWDOWN. This is a friendly showdown between the realms speculative fiction and “non-speculative” fiction—its advocates, practitioners and its subject matter. Also up for discussion: attempted definitions, blurred boundaries and common goals.
Panelists: Dean Francis Alfar, Adam David, Jonathan J. Siason, Alvin B. Yapan, Prabda Yoon
Moderator: Ian Casocot
Venue: Kolektib 1
4:00PM | PARALLEL SESSIONS
ALL ABOUT MY OTHER. The I versus “otherness” in poetry: how do they figure in your work? Insights, questions, problems and answers on this mind-boggling topic.
Panelists: Ronald Baytan, Kristian S. Cordero, Conchitina Cruz, Larry Ypil
Moderators: Carlomar Daoana, Dinah Roma-Sianturi
Venue: Mogwai 2
UNSCRIPTED. Playwrights, screenwriters and writers in general discuss the difficulties of writing for the stage and screen—from the issue (or non-issue) of language and the challenges of the craft, to the long road to production and the burden of having to win the audience.
Panelists: Jhoanna Cruz, Glen Mas, John Iremil Teodoro
Moderator: Jun Lana
Venue: Pablo
THE YOUNG AND THE LITLESS. Is the Filipino youth worth writing for? In the age of the Internet and digital home entertainment, Filipino children and young adults have so much to see, hear and read—without having to open a book. How does this affect the youngest generation of the Filipino literary audience? How does this affect the Filipino writer?
Panelists: Christine Bellen, Jean Lee Patindol
Moderator: Tara FT Sering
Venue: Kolektib 1
THE STORY OF OUR LIVES. Short story writers and novelists discuss the concerns of today’s fictionist—from language and style to themes and subject matter. Also to be discussed: getting published internationally, and the problem and the burden of writing long-form work.
Panelists: Vincente Groyon III, Arifah Jamil, Luis Katigbak, Januar Yap, Alvin B. Yapan
Moderators: Genevieve Asenjo, John Bengan
Venue: Kolektib 2
6:30PM | PLENARY: DEAR NCCA. What can the NCCA do for the younger or emerging writer? This discussion hopes to come up with a wishlist for the NCCA, covering specific measures of support for the Filipino writer.
Moderators: Angelo R. Lacuesta, Joel Toledo
Venue: Mogwai
8:00PM | CLOSING CEREMONIES
• Address, National Artist Virgilio S. Almario
• NCCA Resolutions
• Response and Closing Address, Ricardo de Ungria
FELLOWSHIP
23 January 2009
Battling Bile
Here is the entire 7-part series I wrote on Medy's battle with bile:
Terrible, Marvelous Year (Philippine Star, 11 December 2008)
I write this in violation of William Wordsworth’s precept that writers should write of emotions only as recollected in tranquillity. At the moment, I am far from being tranquil, but I plead the joy and pain of writing in the middle of things.
2008 was the worst year of my life, but it was also the best. This year, I came face to face with mortality, with the fragility of human life, with the strengths and the weaknesses of human beings, with God. This year, I found out, as one friend of a friend put it, that I had friends I never knew I had.
2008 was the year my wife died and was born again. 2008 was the year I died inside and was born again.
2008 started like every other year in my life, with the previous year’s New Year’s resolutions largely unfulfilled, with a half-hearted intention that I would do better the coming year, with a vague hope that I would remain in enough good health to finish all the teaching, writing, organizing, and social commitments I had made.
Before 2008, I prided myself on not being absent a single day from class. Except for the rare times when I was too sick to get out of bed, I had taught every class day for the previous forty years in various universities. I was a stickler for punctuality and attendance, as far as I myself was concerned, and had gained a reputation for starting class even if only one of the students was in the classroom when the opening bell rang and for starting a workshop even if there were only a handful of the participants in the room.
In 2008, I not only was often late for my classes, but was even absent so many times my students started complaining.
Before 2008, I prided myself on remembering names and faces and even approximating Brother Andrew Gonzales’s penchant for associating people with their research projects or academic studies, nagging them to get on with their professional careers.
In 2008, I often found myself at a loss when greeted by former students who would say with a smile, “I was in your class, sir,” then walk away totally disappointed upon seeing my blank stare of unrecognition.
Before 2008, I prided myself on never missing my writing deadlines, whether those of this [weekly] column [in the Philippine Star] or those of scholarly articles or books. I also always came to my public lectures prepared, not just with written papers that I could give to sponsors to be distributed to the audience, but with fancy PowerPoint presentations with animated clip art.
In 2008, I missed all sorts of deadlines, leading two of my publishers to partly replace me in two very large book projects. I found myself giving speeches off the cuff and seeing, on the faces of my listeners, that I was merely wasting their time. I had PowerPoint presentations that were full of text (a no-no for experienced presenters) or even just downloaded pages from the Web (an even bigger no-no).
Early in 2008 my wife Remedios “Medy,” my daughter Luna, and I bought plane tickets to spend Christmas with my daughter Emily, her husband Brett, and their son Carter in Silicon Valley.
Since I was going to be in that area anyway, I registered for the annual convention of the Modern Languages Association to be held in San Francisco during the Christmas holidays. I planned to give two books to my friends attending the same conference – one book (edited by my star student David Jonathan Y. Bayot) anthologizing many of the articles I published outside the Philippines, the second a festschrift in my honor (also edited by Bayot), containing articles by many of the biggest names in international literary theory (Gayatri Spivak, Marjorie Perloff, Catherine Belsey, Christopher Norris, among others).
That trip was cancelled, and the two books will be published only after this year [2008].
The root cause of my total disorientation in 2008 was what happened to my wife Medy. This is the story of Medy and her battle with bile.
The Bile Lady (Philippine Star, 18 December 2008)
Of the two of us, my wife Medy was, before 2008, far and away the healthier. She would hit the treadmill an hour every morning, go on low carbohydrate and other types of diets, use brown rice and brown sugar, and avoid desserts. In contrast, I had (and still have) a sweet tooth and, despite all my resolutions to stay healthy and slim, would devour ice cream, candy, and cakes practically daily.
Before 2008, Medy had never been hospitalized, except for childbirth and a minor polyp operation. In contrast, because of hypertension, I had been brought several times to the emergency rooms of various hospitals, in Manila, Cebu, even Poland while attending a conference. In the middle of one of my speeches in Baguio while I was in DepEd, I became dizzy, had to stop, and was revived by doctors in the audience. I took a term off undergraduate studies for medical treatment, was operated on much later in Iran, had to be nursed back to health in China, and in general, even allowing for hypochondria, was the more likely to get into serious medical trouble.
Instead, in 2008, Medy stayed 47 days in Makati Medical Center, 10 of those days in ICU, another 4 days afterwards in the same hospital, and 11 days at St. Luke’s Medical Center. In the process, she lost almost 30 pounds, had two near-death experiences, and is alive today only because of a miracle wrought by prayers.
How could someone so healthy end up staying that long in hospitals? The long and short answer is bile.
Sometime in the first few weeks of 2008, Medy was diagnosed with cholecystolithiasis, a medical term for gallstones, or more precisely, cholesterol stones in her gall bladder. The condition is fairly common, occurring in up to 55% of all adult women in the world. That means that one out of every two women you know probably has gallstones.
Often, gallstones are not serious enough to require surgery. In fact, there are a number of non-medical cures for gallstones (perhaps merely urban legends), involving massive doses of virgin coconut oil, probiotics, or even just plain water.
Scientifically speaking, there are some non-surgical ways to remove gallstones, such as endoscopic retrograde cholangiography, endosonography or magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography, percutaneous transhepatic cholecystoscopy lithotripsy, and endoscopic sphincterotomy. I have no idea what those are, since I am not a medical doctor; all I know is that they are mentioned in recent medical journal articles. (Did I hear someone mention that a little learning is a dangerous thing? With the Web, we have all become amateur physicians!)
In her case, Medy was medically advised to undergo surgery to have her entire gall bladder removed in order to avoid the possibility that one or more of her numerous tiny gallstones would move out of her gall bladder and into her pancreas, where they could do major damage.
Let us pause for a moment to review what we learned in school about human anatomy.
What is bile? Here is a description from MedicineNet: “Bile is a yellow-green fluid that is made by the liver, stored in the gallbladder and passes through the common bile duct into the duodenum where it helps digest fat. The principal components of bile are cholesterol, bile salts, and the pigment bilirubin.”
Inside the liver, bile begins its long journey by flowing through numerous small ducts, like branches on a tree, that come together to form a large common hepatic duct, like the trunk of that tree. This common hepatic duct connects with the cystic duct that comes from the gall bladder to form the common bile duct.
As long as nothing obstructs the flow of bile, the digestive system works very well (after all, we all know Who designed this system). The intestine signals the gall bladder that it needs bile to digest fat, the gall bladder releases the bile it has stored from the liver, and the liver continues to produce bile to be stored in the gall bladder. Even if humans tamper with the divine design and the gall bladder is removed, there is minimal disruption, because bile can go directly from the liver into the duodenum as long as the common hepatic duct is not cut.
What is the duodenum? The duodenum is the first twelve fingerbreadths of the small intestine (duodeni in Latin means twelve) or about ten inches at the front or top end of the intestine or small bowel (botulus in Latin means sausage).
Since many of our friends already had gall bladder operations with no serious complications, Medy decided to have her gall bladder removed. She turned to a close friend since childhood, one of the country’s leading cancer surgeons. Since the surgeon could routinely remove microscopic cancer cells, there was no reason to think that he could not remove a huge thing like a gall bladder.
Unfortunately, there is Murphy’s Law that states that, if anything can go wrong, it will, and in Medy’s case, something went very wrong.
1 out of 100 (Philippine Star, 25 December 2008)
On May 18, to remove her gall bladder, Medy underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (lapchole or LC, for short), a surgical method developed in 1989.
This is the way Medterms describes LC: “Removal of the gallbladder (cholecystectomy) by laparoscopy. LC is performed through several small incisions. The laparoscope, a small thin tube, is put into the abdomen through a tiny cut made just below the navel. The surgeon can then see the gallbladder on a TV monitor and do the surgery with tools inserted in three other small cuts made in the right upper part of the abdomen. The gallbladder is then taken out through one of the incisions. LC permits a shorter hospital stay and shorter recovery time with less pain [than an open or traditional cholecystectomy]. Possible complications may include bleeding, infection, and injury to the bile duct, intestines, or major blood vessels. Although the rate of common bile duct injury appears increased, this rate is still sufficiently small to justify the use of LC in the treatment of symptomatic gallstones.”
An accident (called a “cholecystectomy surgical misadventure”) during an LC occurs roughly once out of every hundred operations. (The rate varies between 0.55 to 0.94 percent or less than one in a hundred cases.) This rate is “still sufficiently small,” unless you happen to be the one out of the hundred.
During Medy’s LC, the surgeon placed a drain or tube as a precaution, to ensure that any unwanted fluids left would be removed. This was the first sign to me that God was paying special attention to Medy. The drain was a wise decision on the part of the surgeon, even if it went against an October 2007 article in the British National Library for Health, claiming that such a drain was unnecessary: “Drain use after LC is controversial. This review [of all randomized clinical trials worldwide until March 2007] found that the drain use after LC increases wound infection and delays discharge from hospital. Currently, there is no evidence to support the use of drain after LC.”
For the next nine days, Medy had bile leaking out of her body through the drain. Initially, the surgeon thought the leak merely came from “liver weeping” (a medical metaphor for “extravasation of protein-rich lymph on the liver surface”), not a real cause for concern.
In fact, having received an assurance that there was nothing to worry about because the leak would soon stop by itself, I spent the nine days giving three public lectures, hosting a dinner, going to my three offices, and coordinating a national workshop for journal editors. That was the last time that I would ever be that busy and also the last time I would not be camping out in a hospital.
On the tenth day after LC, the bile leak dramatically increased.
In the afternoon of May 29, Medy underwent a diagnostic endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) to find out what was going on inside her body. What the doctors discovered was chilling. Medy’s common hepatic duct had been transected (i.e., cut transversely or perpendicularly). In other words, there was no connection between the liver and the duodenum, which meant that the bile coming out of the liver was going everywhere except where it was supposed to go.
The December 2008 issue of the ANZ Journal of Surgery contains a study of such accidents. According to the article, “Bile duct injury is an important unsolved problem of laparoscopic cholecystectomy, occurring with unacceptable frequency even in the hands of experienced surgeons. Underestimation of risk, cue ambiguity, and visual misperception (‘seeing what you believe’) were important factors in misidentification. Delay in recognition of the injury is a feature consistent with cognitive fixation and plan continuation, which help construct and sustain the duct misidentification during the operation and beyond.” In other words, all over the world, even with the best surgeons, LCs go wrong.
That evening, the doctors decided to have an emergency operation early the next morning. I was asked to obtain at least two units (or bags) of type A+ blood, Medy’s blood type. Unfortunately, Makati Medical Center had run out of such blood in stock.
During times of crisis, you get to know who your friends are. Responding to our calls for help, Luna’s friends immediately came over to give blood. Employees of China Banking Corporation, where Medy worked, came trooping in to give blood. My friends who were corporation managers or school administrators asked their employees and students to donate blood.
Not everybody, however, who wanted to give blood could do so. There were all sorts of restrictions (infections, colds, fever, hypertension, diabetes, tattoos, menstruation, anemia, underweight, and so on). Would-be donors kept getting rejected.
It did not look like we could get the blood through donations; we had to buy it. Near midnight, Luna went to the Philippine National Red Cross office in Quezon City, where she found a long queue of people asking for A+ blood. Time was running out.
Agony in the Hospital (Philippine Star, 1 January 2009)
Close to midnight on May 29, 2008, Luna was able to buy two units of A+ blood from the Philippine National Red Cross, whose personnel, used to personal and national emergencies, were very helpful, courteous, and efficient. Meanwhile, Makati Medical Center accepted two blood donors, one from Luna’s gang and another from ChinaBank. By early morning, we had four units of blood ready for the emergency operation Medy had to undergo to repair the damage done by the laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
At noon the next day, as soon as one of the operating rooms became available, Medy was wheeled in. The team of surgeons warned us that the operation was going to be, in their words, “technically very difficult.” I had not yet started searching the Web nor asking my doctor-friends then for medical information. It was just as well, because my heart would not have been able to take the long wait, had I known what I found out later.
The operation took nine hours, not counting recovery. Luna and I spent the time just being impatient but not overly anxious. My sister Loree, her husband James, and my best friend Paulino even came to keep us company. Ignorance was bliss.
After the operation, one of the surgeons told me that they had just done a Roux-en-Y. I found out later that I should have been worried. When I asked around, my Filipino-American friends who were veteran surgeons in the US told me that Roux-en-Y was “a surgeon’s nightmare” or “looking for trouble.”
The full name of the procedure is “hepatico jejunostomy Roux-en-Y anastomosis,” simply known as Roux-en-Y (pronounced ru-en-wai by Americans and ru-zong-nee by Europeans). The Roux-en-Y is named after Swiss surgeon Cesar Roux, who first employed it in 1892, and the Y-shape the small intestine takes when pulled closer to the liver (in other cases, the stomach). Basically, it is a bypass process, bypassing the bile duct by moving the duodenum next to the liver and punching a common hole to connect them.
Medy spent the next day sound asleep in the hospital room. Alone with her in the room that night, I thought she was just asleep until, close to midnight of May 31, I noticed that she was gasping for air. I called a nurse, who immediately called a doctor doing rounds on the floor.
This was the second clear sign that God was pulling the strings. The nearest doctor turned out to be one of the country’s best nephrologists. Another doctor with a different specialization might not have handled the crisis as well. The nephrologist took command of the doctors that had gathered in the room.
I left the crowded room to cry in the hallway. The nephrologist came out and told me, “She is having acute renal failure. We will try to save her kidneys without dialysis.”
MayoClinic says matter-of-factly, “Acute kidney failure may be fatal. Death rates are highest when the kidneys fail after surgery.” In Medy’s case, acute renal or kidney failure was probably caused by dehydration, since she had fasted almost 36 hours for her ERCP and Roux-en-Y. In any case, eMedicineHealth says that “acute kidney failure occurs in about 5 percent of people who are hospitalized for any reason.”
In the hallway, I called up relatives and friends who were doctors. They all told me not to worry too much, because acute renal failure was reversible. Their reassurances helped me through the next few hours. At midnight, Luna rushed back from our home in Alabang. My other daughter Emily, who lives in Silicon Valley, arrived early the next day.
Afterwards, Medy told me that she had two near-death experiences (NDEs) that night. “Lord, into your hands I commend my spirit,” she prayed, but at the same time, she said, “No, I refuse to go.” Only Medy can be so contrary, but then, God made her that way. She prefers to keep the other details private, but I can say that her NDEs were similar to those documented in books such as Embraced by the Light or websites such as near-death.com.
On June 3, Medy was brought to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where she would stay for the next nine days. Infection was threatening to enter her bloodstream (called sepsis or blood poisoning, a life-threatening illness with a 30 percent chance of death).
Upon seeing her in the ICU, a well-known internist warned me that Medy might have only days to live.
It was time to call in the prayer warriors. I needed the Great Doctor. On June 3, I emailed everyone in my address book and I posted the same appeal on my blog.
“It will help a lot,” I wrote, “if friends storm heaven with prayers. My two daughters are holding up very well, much better than me, I have to admit. You might want to pray for us, too, especially me. I have never panicked this much before.”
Within hours, my Catholic, Christian, Islamic, and Jewish friends were asking God to give Medy a new lease on life.
Prayers work (Philippine Star, 9 January 2009)
For my family, 2008 was a roller-coaster year.
On the down side, Medy continually got into medical trouble. On the up side, every time she did, the Catholic, Christian, Islamic, and Jewish prayers of friends worked to bail her out. Perhaps most touching was the prayer of a usually skeptical friend who said, “I am praying (not something I do very often), so I hope my prayers are given extra force!” The prayers confirmed my belief that God does not give us sufferings we cannot handle nor problems we cannot solve.
After prayers helped them solve the problem of Medy’s acute renal failure, the doctors had to contend with one crisis after another, such as cardiac asthma, congestive heart failure, pancreatitis, anastomotic stenosis, diverticulosis, and a fistula (hole) in her small intestine, not to mention infection of all kinds, among them the life-threatening pseudomonas aeruginosa (which doctors dread because it is so difficult to fight). She was bombarded with several antibiotics, some of which were so new even non-specialists in Infectious Diseases had never heard of them.
Even after she was moved out of the ICU and into a private room, she had tubes going into and out of her body, at one point ten in and four out.
On July 3, after 47 days of confinement, even if bile was still flowing from her body through a tube, Medy was discharged, because a continued stay would have increased chances of hospital-acquired pneumonia.
She continued her medication at our home in Alabang. We were told to look out for signs that would mean immediate trips to an emergency room: high fever, chills, low blood pressure, vomiting, or worst of all, jaundice.
We asked Alabang Medical Center to send a nurse every day for two weeks to administer injections, to dress Medy’s wounds, and to measure the bile leak. We went frequently to the emergency rooms of Alabang Medical Center and Asian Hospital and Medical Center whenever she developed a high fever, needed more injections or another bile culture, or had to replace her ostomy pouching system (colostomy bag). We went regularly to Makati Medical Center for consultations and tests. This went on for more than three months.
The key problem was the bile leak. The second operation was supposed to have solved the problem of the bile duct accidentally cut during the first operation. The bile leaking from Medy’s body was assumed to have been spilled from the cut duct. That leftover bile should have already been totally drained. If the bile were seeping out of the small intestine through what radiology showed was a fistula, even that hole should have healed by itself. But the bile kept flowing, and she kept getting infections.
We started consulting doctors from other hospitals, not just in the Philippines, but in Singapore and the United States. The doctors were leading figures in their fields, many of them published scholars, a couple of them doctors of Philippine presidents. One liver transplant surgeon from Harvard Medical School even asked for copies of Medy’s MRI tapes.
A renowned hepatologist (hepatos in Greek means liver) from St. Luke’s Medical Center gave us a clear explanation of what was happening. This was a race, she said. The bile leak should stop by itself eventually, but that could take months. Meanwhile, the longer the tube remained inside her body, the greater the chance of infection, because the cause of infection was the tube itself. The worst possible case would be that infection could no longer be controlled because we would run out of effective antibiotics (since bacteria develop immunity to drugs); Medy would then go into sepsis, which could mean death in a few days.
The solution, therefore, was to have a third operation to fix whatever was blocking the bile flow to the small intestine. We asked several other specialists; they unanimously agreed that Medy needed a third operation.
Since Medy was shedding not just bile but weight (she had, by then, lost almost 30 pounds), we scheduled a third operation for Oct. 21 at Makati Medical Center. We contracted a leading liver transplant surgeon to do the operation.
On Sept. 28, the bile leak suddenly stopped. On Oct. 15 the tube was removed. Medy continued to have fever and even got readmitted for four days into Makati Medical Center for an IV-administered antibiotic, but the doctors theorized that the leftover bile had finally all been drained, the fistula had closed, the anastomosis was working, and it was only a matter of time before antibiotics would kill all the bad bacteria in her body.
Because it looked like Medy no longer needed another operation, we scheduled a Thanksgiving Mass and a reception in Makati on Dec. 1. On Nov. 25, however, friends noticed that Medy’s eyes were turning yellow. She had also started itching all over (medically called pruritis).
On Dec. 2, it became obvious that Medy had jaundice, which meant that bile had been blocked from flowing into her small intestine. Bilirubin, normally excreted in bile, was leaking instead into her eyes and skin. The race was entering its last lap.
Special Christmas (Philippine Star, 15 January 2009)
My wife Medy, my daughter Luna, and I were all set to leave on Dec. 20 for Silicon Valley to spend the Christmas holidays with my daughter Emily, her husband Brett, and our grandson Carter. I had also arranged for Stanford University Medical Center to take a look at Medy to check if her bile problem had indeed been solved.
We had standing instructions from our liver surgeon to rush to Makati Medical Center to have a third operation once Medy developed jaundice. Since she had had no bile leak for a month and a half, I was sure nothing could stop us from going to the U.S.
The reason for the standing instructions was, of course, bile.
All red blood cells break down after three or four months to be replaced by new cells; this is the body’s way of cleaning our system, something like a biological oil change. When the cells break down, they release a yellow-orange protein called bilirubin. The liver sends the bilirubin through bile to the small intestine for eventual excretion. If bile does not flow to the intestines, the bilirubin stays in the bloodstream and stains the eyes and the skin yellow. That is called jaundice. Since Medy’s original problem was the lack of a way for bile to move from the liver to the small intestine, jaundice was a visible sign that the original problem had not yet been solved.
Towards the end of November, some of Medy’s friends remarked that her eyes seemed a bit yellow, but because I was eager to leave for abroad, I was on denial mode.
On Dec. 3, her friends insisted that she had jaundice. I answered that the only way to find out for sure was to have a doctor see her. We called the liver surgeon to set an appointment. She was out of town and could not do the operation in Makati Medical Center immediately anyway.
We decided to see the hepatologist we had consulted four months earlier at St. Luke’s Medical Center. The moment she saw Medy on Dec. 4, she said, “This can’t wait anymore. We have to operate immediately. The risk of infection is too high.”
St. Luke’s Medical Center did not earn its reputation of being “a center for world-class healthcare in Asia” by not being proactive. If the race against bile was going to be won, it had to be won quickly. The hepatologist arranged for the operation to be done by one of the best Filipino biliary surgeons, who happened to have a day free in his busy schedule.
This was the third clear sign that God was directing the events. We learned from doctors later that, had we waited longer, Medy would not have made it. It was crucial that we got a free slot in an operating room with excellent doctors attending to her.
On Dec. 5, Medy was admitted into St. Luke’s Medical Center. That night, Emily arrived from the U.S.
After various tests, Medy had her third operation on Dec. 8. After the four-hour operation, the surgeon explained to us that, instead of merely repairing the earlier Roux-en-Y, he had done another Roux-en-Y with a larger opening, using a different part of the liver. He had removed three remaining tiny stones from the liver. He had moved a portion (the jejunum) of the small intestine close to the skin, to enable non-surgical repairs in case of future need.
“No one among my patients has ever had to use this safety measure,” he assured us, “but it’s better to be safe.” Should the bile stop flowing again to the intestines, Medy need not have another operation. All a doctor has to do is to extract through the port whatever debris may be causing the blockage.
During the seven-month ordeal, with bile unable to leave her liver (called cholestasis, from the same Greek root word as “static”) and scarring liver tissues (called fibrosis), Medy developed secondary biliary cirrhosis. (The term is misleading because it is not cirrhosis, which is chronic liver failure and life-threatening.) Damage to the liver is supposed to be irreversible and may eventually cause cirrhosis (the real thing).
We are not scared even a little bit about the irreversibility, because God has already shown extraordinary care for Medy and is not likely to let up now.
In fact, during our consultation last week, the hepatologist said that Medy’s latest blood tests showed that the biliary cirrhosis may be reversible. That would be another miracle, but who are we not to believe in miracles? In any case, biliary cirrhosis is a condition Medy can live with for a long, long time.
After the operation, Brett and Carter arrived to spend Christmas with us in Alabang. We still had a family celebration, though not in California as we had thought we would. God meant for us to spend the holidays in the Philippines. Christmas in 2008 was truly special for our family.
Lessons Learned (Philippine Star, 22 January 2009)
These are some of the lessons I learned from Medy’s battle with bile:
1. Prayers work. Even some of the doctors at Makati Medical Center admitted afterwards that they did not expect Medy to survive her stay in the ICU. The storm of prayers done by friends and friends of friends from all over the world (thanks to the Internet) moved God to intervene in the medical process.
2. Religion does not matter. Most of our friends are Catholic, many are Christian, some are Islamic, and a few are Jewish, and they all prayed to the same God (who is called by different names). I am sure that God does not much care if those praying go to different places of worship on different days of the week. God looks directly into the hearts of people, where it was clear that concern for Medy was foremost.
3. Always get a second opinion. We immediately agreed to the first operation when the doctor suggested it. Had we asked other doctors, we would never have gone through with it. Several doctors we asked afterwards said laparoscopic cholecystectomy was ill-advised, since Medy’s gall bladder was embedded in her liver. A senior doctor from the Philippine General Hospital put it this way, “You have to have done a thousand lapcholes to be good at it.”
4. There are doctors and there are doctors. Most of our doctors do not mind talking to us by cellphone and even giving prescriptions through texts to be shown to pharmacists. These doctors do not worry about their fees; they represent the best disciples of Hippocrates. There are a few doctors, however, who will talk to you only during their clinic hours and only if you pay for the visits.
5. American hospitals are not necessarily better than Philippine hospitals. This is what one American doctor in California said when we consulted him: “I recommend that you don’t treat her in the US, because she wouldn’t get better care here than in Manila. The US is a good option if we were dealing with the heart, the brain, or other cases that need advanced technology or advanced skill. But Medy’s case fundamentally requires skilled doctors and not so much high-tech.” The same doctor recommended going to St. Luke’s Medical Center, which he regarded as an excellent hospital even better than those in Singapore.
6. Money is not as important as life. Well-meaning friends have asked us whether we still have savings. The answer is the old saying: “Ang pera, pag nawala, pwedeng kitain muli, pero ang buhay, pag nawala, wala na” (Money lost can be earned back, but a life lost is lost forever).
7. Exercise to prepare for emergencies. Without her daily hour at the treadmill, Medy’s heart would never have carried her through the crisis.
8. Have friends. The more friends you have, the better. You need friends, as well as family, around you when you get desperate. All our friends and all their friends responded quickly to our calls for prayers. Friendship, however, is always a two-way street. When your friends get desperate, you have to rush to their side. Drop everything you are doing and do what they have done and will always do for you – make their personal crisis the center of your life.
9. Trust your doctors. They are human, just like you. They make mistakes, just like you. But they have trained long and hard to do what they know how to do. They will always do their best to keep you alive and in good health. They know much more than you do. Follow what they say. Do not second guess them.
10. Trust God. You cannot depend completely on human talent and wisdom. In the end, God calls the shots. God did not create you just to make your life miserable. God is always looking out for you. God is always doing what is good for you. Nothing that happens to you can ever be really bad for you. God has a reason for everything, and your puny human mind cannot possibly comprehend the divine design.
Thank you to the MDs (in the Philippines, the U.S., and Singapore) who helped bring Medy back to life, whether by joining the medical teams or offering medical advice or moral support on the sidelines (in alphabetical order): Alipio Abad, Salvador Abad Santos, Nolan Aludino, Jimmy Aragon, Ramon Arcadio, Elizabeth Arcellana, Benjamin Benitez, Frances Bernardo, Hermin Calma, Marianne Cayco, Juliet Gopez-Cervantes, Dennis Damaso, Dina Diaz, Romeo Diaz, Jackson Dy, Christine Fausto, Filologo Felix, Ma. Tarcela Gler, Godofredo Godoy, Erwin Gomez, Jonnel Lim, Juan Madariaga, Karl Morales, Carol Narvacan, Ruben Ortega, Elmar Perez, Willie Pulido, Eugene Pulmano, Jesus Relos, Ramon Santos-Ocampo, Romeo Saavedra, Menandro Siozon, George Soo, Remedios Suntay, Ma. Milan Tambunting, Jaime Galvez-Tan, K. C. Tan, Catherine Teh, Annabelle Vergel de Dios, Alex Yap, and others. Thank you also to the countless non-doctors (especially Robert F. Kuan, chairman of St. Luke’s Medical Center, and the nurses of four hospitals), who worked, prayed, visited, and watched with us through the long, dark night of Medy’s battle with bile.
Terrible, Marvelous Year (Philippine Star, 11 December 2008)
I write this in violation of William Wordsworth’s precept that writers should write of emotions only as recollected in tranquillity. At the moment, I am far from being tranquil, but I plead the joy and pain of writing in the middle of things.
2008 was the worst year of my life, but it was also the best. This year, I came face to face with mortality, with the fragility of human life, with the strengths and the weaknesses of human beings, with God. This year, I found out, as one friend of a friend put it, that I had friends I never knew I had.
2008 was the year my wife died and was born again. 2008 was the year I died inside and was born again.
2008 started like every other year in my life, with the previous year’s New Year’s resolutions largely unfulfilled, with a half-hearted intention that I would do better the coming year, with a vague hope that I would remain in enough good health to finish all the teaching, writing, organizing, and social commitments I had made.
Before 2008, I prided myself on not being absent a single day from class. Except for the rare times when I was too sick to get out of bed, I had taught every class day for the previous forty years in various universities. I was a stickler for punctuality and attendance, as far as I myself was concerned, and had gained a reputation for starting class even if only one of the students was in the classroom when the opening bell rang and for starting a workshop even if there were only a handful of the participants in the room.
In 2008, I not only was often late for my classes, but was even absent so many times my students started complaining.
Before 2008, I prided myself on remembering names and faces and even approximating Brother Andrew Gonzales’s penchant for associating people with their research projects or academic studies, nagging them to get on with their professional careers.
In 2008, I often found myself at a loss when greeted by former students who would say with a smile, “I was in your class, sir,” then walk away totally disappointed upon seeing my blank stare of unrecognition.
Before 2008, I prided myself on never missing my writing deadlines, whether those of this [weekly] column [in the Philippine Star] or those of scholarly articles or books. I also always came to my public lectures prepared, not just with written papers that I could give to sponsors to be distributed to the audience, but with fancy PowerPoint presentations with animated clip art.
In 2008, I missed all sorts of deadlines, leading two of my publishers to partly replace me in two very large book projects. I found myself giving speeches off the cuff and seeing, on the faces of my listeners, that I was merely wasting their time. I had PowerPoint presentations that were full of text (a no-no for experienced presenters) or even just downloaded pages from the Web (an even bigger no-no).
Early in 2008 my wife Remedios “Medy,” my daughter Luna, and I bought plane tickets to spend Christmas with my daughter Emily, her husband Brett, and their son Carter in Silicon Valley.
Since I was going to be in that area anyway, I registered for the annual convention of the Modern Languages Association to be held in San Francisco during the Christmas holidays. I planned to give two books to my friends attending the same conference – one book (edited by my star student David Jonathan Y. Bayot) anthologizing many of the articles I published outside the Philippines, the second a festschrift in my honor (also edited by Bayot), containing articles by many of the biggest names in international literary theory (Gayatri Spivak, Marjorie Perloff, Catherine Belsey, Christopher Norris, among others).
That trip was cancelled, and the two books will be published only after this year [2008].
The root cause of my total disorientation in 2008 was what happened to my wife Medy. This is the story of Medy and her battle with bile.
The Bile Lady (Philippine Star, 18 December 2008)
Of the two of us, my wife Medy was, before 2008, far and away the healthier. She would hit the treadmill an hour every morning, go on low carbohydrate and other types of diets, use brown rice and brown sugar, and avoid desserts. In contrast, I had (and still have) a sweet tooth and, despite all my resolutions to stay healthy and slim, would devour ice cream, candy, and cakes practically daily.
Before 2008, Medy had never been hospitalized, except for childbirth and a minor polyp operation. In contrast, because of hypertension, I had been brought several times to the emergency rooms of various hospitals, in Manila, Cebu, even Poland while attending a conference. In the middle of one of my speeches in Baguio while I was in DepEd, I became dizzy, had to stop, and was revived by doctors in the audience. I took a term off undergraduate studies for medical treatment, was operated on much later in Iran, had to be nursed back to health in China, and in general, even allowing for hypochondria, was the more likely to get into serious medical trouble.
Instead, in 2008, Medy stayed 47 days in Makati Medical Center, 10 of those days in ICU, another 4 days afterwards in the same hospital, and 11 days at St. Luke’s Medical Center. In the process, she lost almost 30 pounds, had two near-death experiences, and is alive today only because of a miracle wrought by prayers.
How could someone so healthy end up staying that long in hospitals? The long and short answer is bile.
Sometime in the first few weeks of 2008, Medy was diagnosed with cholecystolithiasis, a medical term for gallstones, or more precisely, cholesterol stones in her gall bladder. The condition is fairly common, occurring in up to 55% of all adult women in the world. That means that one out of every two women you know probably has gallstones.
Often, gallstones are not serious enough to require surgery. In fact, there are a number of non-medical cures for gallstones (perhaps merely urban legends), involving massive doses of virgin coconut oil, probiotics, or even just plain water.
Scientifically speaking, there are some non-surgical ways to remove gallstones, such as endoscopic retrograde cholangiography, endosonography or magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography, percutaneous transhepatic cholecystoscopy lithotripsy, and endoscopic sphincterotomy. I have no idea what those are, since I am not a medical doctor; all I know is that they are mentioned in recent medical journal articles. (Did I hear someone mention that a little learning is a dangerous thing? With the Web, we have all become amateur physicians!)
In her case, Medy was medically advised to undergo surgery to have her entire gall bladder removed in order to avoid the possibility that one or more of her numerous tiny gallstones would move out of her gall bladder and into her pancreas, where they could do major damage.
Let us pause for a moment to review what we learned in school about human anatomy.
What is bile? Here is a description from MedicineNet: “Bile is a yellow-green fluid that is made by the liver, stored in the gallbladder and passes through the common bile duct into the duodenum where it helps digest fat. The principal components of bile are cholesterol, bile salts, and the pigment bilirubin.”
Inside the liver, bile begins its long journey by flowing through numerous small ducts, like branches on a tree, that come together to form a large common hepatic duct, like the trunk of that tree. This common hepatic duct connects with the cystic duct that comes from the gall bladder to form the common bile duct.
As long as nothing obstructs the flow of bile, the digestive system works very well (after all, we all know Who designed this system). The intestine signals the gall bladder that it needs bile to digest fat, the gall bladder releases the bile it has stored from the liver, and the liver continues to produce bile to be stored in the gall bladder. Even if humans tamper with the divine design and the gall bladder is removed, there is minimal disruption, because bile can go directly from the liver into the duodenum as long as the common hepatic duct is not cut.
What is the duodenum? The duodenum is the first twelve fingerbreadths of the small intestine (duodeni in Latin means twelve) or about ten inches at the front or top end of the intestine or small bowel (botulus in Latin means sausage).
Since many of our friends already had gall bladder operations with no serious complications, Medy decided to have her gall bladder removed. She turned to a close friend since childhood, one of the country’s leading cancer surgeons. Since the surgeon could routinely remove microscopic cancer cells, there was no reason to think that he could not remove a huge thing like a gall bladder.
Unfortunately, there is Murphy’s Law that states that, if anything can go wrong, it will, and in Medy’s case, something went very wrong.
1 out of 100 (Philippine Star, 25 December 2008)
On May 18, to remove her gall bladder, Medy underwent a laparoscopic cholecystectomy (lapchole or LC, for short), a surgical method developed in 1989.
This is the way Medterms describes LC: “Removal of the gallbladder (cholecystectomy) by laparoscopy. LC is performed through several small incisions. The laparoscope, a small thin tube, is put into the abdomen through a tiny cut made just below the navel. The surgeon can then see the gallbladder on a TV monitor and do the surgery with tools inserted in three other small cuts made in the right upper part of the abdomen. The gallbladder is then taken out through one of the incisions. LC permits a shorter hospital stay and shorter recovery time with less pain [than an open or traditional cholecystectomy]. Possible complications may include bleeding, infection, and injury to the bile duct, intestines, or major blood vessels. Although the rate of common bile duct injury appears increased, this rate is still sufficiently small to justify the use of LC in the treatment of symptomatic gallstones.”
An accident (called a “cholecystectomy surgical misadventure”) during an LC occurs roughly once out of every hundred operations. (The rate varies between 0.55 to 0.94 percent or less than one in a hundred cases.) This rate is “still sufficiently small,” unless you happen to be the one out of the hundred.
During Medy’s LC, the surgeon placed a drain or tube as a precaution, to ensure that any unwanted fluids left would be removed. This was the first sign to me that God was paying special attention to Medy. The drain was a wise decision on the part of the surgeon, even if it went against an October 2007 article in the British National Library for Health, claiming that such a drain was unnecessary: “Drain use after LC is controversial. This review [of all randomized clinical trials worldwide until March 2007] found that the drain use after LC increases wound infection and delays discharge from hospital. Currently, there is no evidence to support the use of drain after LC.”
For the next nine days, Medy had bile leaking out of her body through the drain. Initially, the surgeon thought the leak merely came from “liver weeping” (a medical metaphor for “extravasation of protein-rich lymph on the liver surface”), not a real cause for concern.
In fact, having received an assurance that there was nothing to worry about because the leak would soon stop by itself, I spent the nine days giving three public lectures, hosting a dinner, going to my three offices, and coordinating a national workshop for journal editors. That was the last time that I would ever be that busy and also the last time I would not be camping out in a hospital.
On the tenth day after LC, the bile leak dramatically increased.
In the afternoon of May 29, Medy underwent a diagnostic endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) to find out what was going on inside her body. What the doctors discovered was chilling. Medy’s common hepatic duct had been transected (i.e., cut transversely or perpendicularly). In other words, there was no connection between the liver and the duodenum, which meant that the bile coming out of the liver was going everywhere except where it was supposed to go.
The December 2008 issue of the ANZ Journal of Surgery contains a study of such accidents. According to the article, “Bile duct injury is an important unsolved problem of laparoscopic cholecystectomy, occurring with unacceptable frequency even in the hands of experienced surgeons. Underestimation of risk, cue ambiguity, and visual misperception (‘seeing what you believe’) were important factors in misidentification. Delay in recognition of the injury is a feature consistent with cognitive fixation and plan continuation, which help construct and sustain the duct misidentification during the operation and beyond.” In other words, all over the world, even with the best surgeons, LCs go wrong.
That evening, the doctors decided to have an emergency operation early the next morning. I was asked to obtain at least two units (or bags) of type A+ blood, Medy’s blood type. Unfortunately, Makati Medical Center had run out of such blood in stock.
During times of crisis, you get to know who your friends are. Responding to our calls for help, Luna’s friends immediately came over to give blood. Employees of China Banking Corporation, where Medy worked, came trooping in to give blood. My friends who were corporation managers or school administrators asked their employees and students to donate blood.
Not everybody, however, who wanted to give blood could do so. There were all sorts of restrictions (infections, colds, fever, hypertension, diabetes, tattoos, menstruation, anemia, underweight, and so on). Would-be donors kept getting rejected.
It did not look like we could get the blood through donations; we had to buy it. Near midnight, Luna went to the Philippine National Red Cross office in Quezon City, where she found a long queue of people asking for A+ blood. Time was running out.
Agony in the Hospital (Philippine Star, 1 January 2009)
Close to midnight on May 29, 2008, Luna was able to buy two units of A+ blood from the Philippine National Red Cross, whose personnel, used to personal and national emergencies, were very helpful, courteous, and efficient. Meanwhile, Makati Medical Center accepted two blood donors, one from Luna’s gang and another from ChinaBank. By early morning, we had four units of blood ready for the emergency operation Medy had to undergo to repair the damage done by the laparoscopic cholecystectomy.
At noon the next day, as soon as one of the operating rooms became available, Medy was wheeled in. The team of surgeons warned us that the operation was going to be, in their words, “technically very difficult.” I had not yet started searching the Web nor asking my doctor-friends then for medical information. It was just as well, because my heart would not have been able to take the long wait, had I known what I found out later.
The operation took nine hours, not counting recovery. Luna and I spent the time just being impatient but not overly anxious. My sister Loree, her husband James, and my best friend Paulino even came to keep us company. Ignorance was bliss.
After the operation, one of the surgeons told me that they had just done a Roux-en-Y. I found out later that I should have been worried. When I asked around, my Filipino-American friends who were veteran surgeons in the US told me that Roux-en-Y was “a surgeon’s nightmare” or “looking for trouble.”
The full name of the procedure is “hepatico jejunostomy Roux-en-Y anastomosis,” simply known as Roux-en-Y (pronounced ru-en-wai by Americans and ru-zong-nee by Europeans). The Roux-en-Y is named after Swiss surgeon Cesar Roux, who first employed it in 1892, and the Y-shape the small intestine takes when pulled closer to the liver (in other cases, the stomach). Basically, it is a bypass process, bypassing the bile duct by moving the duodenum next to the liver and punching a common hole to connect them.
Medy spent the next day sound asleep in the hospital room. Alone with her in the room that night, I thought she was just asleep until, close to midnight of May 31, I noticed that she was gasping for air. I called a nurse, who immediately called a doctor doing rounds on the floor.
This was the second clear sign that God was pulling the strings. The nearest doctor turned out to be one of the country’s best nephrologists. Another doctor with a different specialization might not have handled the crisis as well. The nephrologist took command of the doctors that had gathered in the room.
I left the crowded room to cry in the hallway. The nephrologist came out and told me, “She is having acute renal failure. We will try to save her kidneys without dialysis.”
MayoClinic says matter-of-factly, “Acute kidney failure may be fatal. Death rates are highest when the kidneys fail after surgery.” In Medy’s case, acute renal or kidney failure was probably caused by dehydration, since she had fasted almost 36 hours for her ERCP and Roux-en-Y. In any case, eMedicineHealth says that “acute kidney failure occurs in about 5 percent of people who are hospitalized for any reason.”
In the hallway, I called up relatives and friends who were doctors. They all told me not to worry too much, because acute renal failure was reversible. Their reassurances helped me through the next few hours. At midnight, Luna rushed back from our home in Alabang. My other daughter Emily, who lives in Silicon Valley, arrived early the next day.
Afterwards, Medy told me that she had two near-death experiences (NDEs) that night. “Lord, into your hands I commend my spirit,” she prayed, but at the same time, she said, “No, I refuse to go.” Only Medy can be so contrary, but then, God made her that way. She prefers to keep the other details private, but I can say that her NDEs were similar to those documented in books such as Embraced by the Light or websites such as near-death.com.
On June 3, Medy was brought to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where she would stay for the next nine days. Infection was threatening to enter her bloodstream (called sepsis or blood poisoning, a life-threatening illness with a 30 percent chance of death).
Upon seeing her in the ICU, a well-known internist warned me that Medy might have only days to live.
It was time to call in the prayer warriors. I needed the Great Doctor. On June 3, I emailed everyone in my address book and I posted the same appeal on my blog.
“It will help a lot,” I wrote, “if friends storm heaven with prayers. My two daughters are holding up very well, much better than me, I have to admit. You might want to pray for us, too, especially me. I have never panicked this much before.”
Within hours, my Catholic, Christian, Islamic, and Jewish friends were asking God to give Medy a new lease on life.
Prayers work (Philippine Star, 9 January 2009)
For my family, 2008 was a roller-coaster year.
On the down side, Medy continually got into medical trouble. On the up side, every time she did, the Catholic, Christian, Islamic, and Jewish prayers of friends worked to bail her out. Perhaps most touching was the prayer of a usually skeptical friend who said, “I am praying (not something I do very often), so I hope my prayers are given extra force!” The prayers confirmed my belief that God does not give us sufferings we cannot handle nor problems we cannot solve.
After prayers helped them solve the problem of Medy’s acute renal failure, the doctors had to contend with one crisis after another, such as cardiac asthma, congestive heart failure, pancreatitis, anastomotic stenosis, diverticulosis, and a fistula (hole) in her small intestine, not to mention infection of all kinds, among them the life-threatening pseudomonas aeruginosa (which doctors dread because it is so difficult to fight). She was bombarded with several antibiotics, some of which were so new even non-specialists in Infectious Diseases had never heard of them.
Even after she was moved out of the ICU and into a private room, she had tubes going into and out of her body, at one point ten in and four out.
On July 3, after 47 days of confinement, even if bile was still flowing from her body through a tube, Medy was discharged, because a continued stay would have increased chances of hospital-acquired pneumonia.
She continued her medication at our home in Alabang. We were told to look out for signs that would mean immediate trips to an emergency room: high fever, chills, low blood pressure, vomiting, or worst of all, jaundice.
We asked Alabang Medical Center to send a nurse every day for two weeks to administer injections, to dress Medy’s wounds, and to measure the bile leak. We went frequently to the emergency rooms of Alabang Medical Center and Asian Hospital and Medical Center whenever she developed a high fever, needed more injections or another bile culture, or had to replace her ostomy pouching system (colostomy bag). We went regularly to Makati Medical Center for consultations and tests. This went on for more than three months.
The key problem was the bile leak. The second operation was supposed to have solved the problem of the bile duct accidentally cut during the first operation. The bile leaking from Medy’s body was assumed to have been spilled from the cut duct. That leftover bile should have already been totally drained. If the bile were seeping out of the small intestine through what radiology showed was a fistula, even that hole should have healed by itself. But the bile kept flowing, and she kept getting infections.
We started consulting doctors from other hospitals, not just in the Philippines, but in Singapore and the United States. The doctors were leading figures in their fields, many of them published scholars, a couple of them doctors of Philippine presidents. One liver transplant surgeon from Harvard Medical School even asked for copies of Medy’s MRI tapes.
A renowned hepatologist (hepatos in Greek means liver) from St. Luke’s Medical Center gave us a clear explanation of what was happening. This was a race, she said. The bile leak should stop by itself eventually, but that could take months. Meanwhile, the longer the tube remained inside her body, the greater the chance of infection, because the cause of infection was the tube itself. The worst possible case would be that infection could no longer be controlled because we would run out of effective antibiotics (since bacteria develop immunity to drugs); Medy would then go into sepsis, which could mean death in a few days.
The solution, therefore, was to have a third operation to fix whatever was blocking the bile flow to the small intestine. We asked several other specialists; they unanimously agreed that Medy needed a third operation.
Since Medy was shedding not just bile but weight (she had, by then, lost almost 30 pounds), we scheduled a third operation for Oct. 21 at Makati Medical Center. We contracted a leading liver transplant surgeon to do the operation.
On Sept. 28, the bile leak suddenly stopped. On Oct. 15 the tube was removed. Medy continued to have fever and even got readmitted for four days into Makati Medical Center for an IV-administered antibiotic, but the doctors theorized that the leftover bile had finally all been drained, the fistula had closed, the anastomosis was working, and it was only a matter of time before antibiotics would kill all the bad bacteria in her body.
Because it looked like Medy no longer needed another operation, we scheduled a Thanksgiving Mass and a reception in Makati on Dec. 1. On Nov. 25, however, friends noticed that Medy’s eyes were turning yellow. She had also started itching all over (medically called pruritis).
On Dec. 2, it became obvious that Medy had jaundice, which meant that bile had been blocked from flowing into her small intestine. Bilirubin, normally excreted in bile, was leaking instead into her eyes and skin. The race was entering its last lap.
Special Christmas (Philippine Star, 15 January 2009)
My wife Medy, my daughter Luna, and I were all set to leave on Dec. 20 for Silicon Valley to spend the Christmas holidays with my daughter Emily, her husband Brett, and our grandson Carter. I had also arranged for Stanford University Medical Center to take a look at Medy to check if her bile problem had indeed been solved.
We had standing instructions from our liver surgeon to rush to Makati Medical Center to have a third operation once Medy developed jaundice. Since she had had no bile leak for a month and a half, I was sure nothing could stop us from going to the U.S.
The reason for the standing instructions was, of course, bile.
All red blood cells break down after three or four months to be replaced by new cells; this is the body’s way of cleaning our system, something like a biological oil change. When the cells break down, they release a yellow-orange protein called bilirubin. The liver sends the bilirubin through bile to the small intestine for eventual excretion. If bile does not flow to the intestines, the bilirubin stays in the bloodstream and stains the eyes and the skin yellow. That is called jaundice. Since Medy’s original problem was the lack of a way for bile to move from the liver to the small intestine, jaundice was a visible sign that the original problem had not yet been solved.
Towards the end of November, some of Medy’s friends remarked that her eyes seemed a bit yellow, but because I was eager to leave for abroad, I was on denial mode.
On Dec. 3, her friends insisted that she had jaundice. I answered that the only way to find out for sure was to have a doctor see her. We called the liver surgeon to set an appointment. She was out of town and could not do the operation in Makati Medical Center immediately anyway.
We decided to see the hepatologist we had consulted four months earlier at St. Luke’s Medical Center. The moment she saw Medy on Dec. 4, she said, “This can’t wait anymore. We have to operate immediately. The risk of infection is too high.”
St. Luke’s Medical Center did not earn its reputation of being “a center for world-class healthcare in Asia” by not being proactive. If the race against bile was going to be won, it had to be won quickly. The hepatologist arranged for the operation to be done by one of the best Filipino biliary surgeons, who happened to have a day free in his busy schedule.
This was the third clear sign that God was directing the events. We learned from doctors later that, had we waited longer, Medy would not have made it. It was crucial that we got a free slot in an operating room with excellent doctors attending to her.
On Dec. 5, Medy was admitted into St. Luke’s Medical Center. That night, Emily arrived from the U.S.
After various tests, Medy had her third operation on Dec. 8. After the four-hour operation, the surgeon explained to us that, instead of merely repairing the earlier Roux-en-Y, he had done another Roux-en-Y with a larger opening, using a different part of the liver. He had removed three remaining tiny stones from the liver. He had moved a portion (the jejunum) of the small intestine close to the skin, to enable non-surgical repairs in case of future need.
“No one among my patients has ever had to use this safety measure,” he assured us, “but it’s better to be safe.” Should the bile stop flowing again to the intestines, Medy need not have another operation. All a doctor has to do is to extract through the port whatever debris may be causing the blockage.
During the seven-month ordeal, with bile unable to leave her liver (called cholestasis, from the same Greek root word as “static”) and scarring liver tissues (called fibrosis), Medy developed secondary biliary cirrhosis. (The term is misleading because it is not cirrhosis, which is chronic liver failure and life-threatening.) Damage to the liver is supposed to be irreversible and may eventually cause cirrhosis (the real thing).
We are not scared even a little bit about the irreversibility, because God has already shown extraordinary care for Medy and is not likely to let up now.
In fact, during our consultation last week, the hepatologist said that Medy’s latest blood tests showed that the biliary cirrhosis may be reversible. That would be another miracle, but who are we not to believe in miracles? In any case, biliary cirrhosis is a condition Medy can live with for a long, long time.
After the operation, Brett and Carter arrived to spend Christmas with us in Alabang. We still had a family celebration, though not in California as we had thought we would. God meant for us to spend the holidays in the Philippines. Christmas in 2008 was truly special for our family.
Lessons Learned (Philippine Star, 22 January 2009)
These are some of the lessons I learned from Medy’s battle with bile:
1. Prayers work. Even some of the doctors at Makati Medical Center admitted afterwards that they did not expect Medy to survive her stay in the ICU. The storm of prayers done by friends and friends of friends from all over the world (thanks to the Internet) moved God to intervene in the medical process.
2. Religion does not matter. Most of our friends are Catholic, many are Christian, some are Islamic, and a few are Jewish, and they all prayed to the same God (who is called by different names). I am sure that God does not much care if those praying go to different places of worship on different days of the week. God looks directly into the hearts of people, where it was clear that concern for Medy was foremost.
3. Always get a second opinion. We immediately agreed to the first operation when the doctor suggested it. Had we asked other doctors, we would never have gone through with it. Several doctors we asked afterwards said laparoscopic cholecystectomy was ill-advised, since Medy’s gall bladder was embedded in her liver. A senior doctor from the Philippine General Hospital put it this way, “You have to have done a thousand lapcholes to be good at it.”
4. There are doctors and there are doctors. Most of our doctors do not mind talking to us by cellphone and even giving prescriptions through texts to be shown to pharmacists. These doctors do not worry about their fees; they represent the best disciples of Hippocrates. There are a few doctors, however, who will talk to you only during their clinic hours and only if you pay for the visits.
5. American hospitals are not necessarily better than Philippine hospitals. This is what one American doctor in California said when we consulted him: “I recommend that you don’t treat her in the US, because she wouldn’t get better care here than in Manila. The US is a good option if we were dealing with the heart, the brain, or other cases that need advanced technology or advanced skill. But Medy’s case fundamentally requires skilled doctors and not so much high-tech.” The same doctor recommended going to St. Luke’s Medical Center, which he regarded as an excellent hospital even better than those in Singapore.
6. Money is not as important as life. Well-meaning friends have asked us whether we still have savings. The answer is the old saying: “Ang pera, pag nawala, pwedeng kitain muli, pero ang buhay, pag nawala, wala na” (Money lost can be earned back, but a life lost is lost forever).
7. Exercise to prepare for emergencies. Without her daily hour at the treadmill, Medy’s heart would never have carried her through the crisis.
8. Have friends. The more friends you have, the better. You need friends, as well as family, around you when you get desperate. All our friends and all their friends responded quickly to our calls for prayers. Friendship, however, is always a two-way street. When your friends get desperate, you have to rush to their side. Drop everything you are doing and do what they have done and will always do for you – make their personal crisis the center of your life.
9. Trust your doctors. They are human, just like you. They make mistakes, just like you. But they have trained long and hard to do what they know how to do. They will always do their best to keep you alive and in good health. They know much more than you do. Follow what they say. Do not second guess them.
10. Trust God. You cannot depend completely on human talent and wisdom. In the end, God calls the shots. God did not create you just to make your life miserable. God is always looking out for you. God is always doing what is good for you. Nothing that happens to you can ever be really bad for you. God has a reason for everything, and your puny human mind cannot possibly comprehend the divine design.
Thank you to the MDs (in the Philippines, the U.S., and Singapore) who helped bring Medy back to life, whether by joining the medical teams or offering medical advice or moral support on the sidelines (in alphabetical order): Alipio Abad, Salvador Abad Santos, Nolan Aludino, Jimmy Aragon, Ramon Arcadio, Elizabeth Arcellana, Benjamin Benitez, Frances Bernardo, Hermin Calma, Marianne Cayco, Juliet Gopez-Cervantes, Dennis Damaso, Dina Diaz, Romeo Diaz, Jackson Dy, Christine Fausto, Filologo Felix, Ma. Tarcela Gler, Godofredo Godoy, Erwin Gomez, Jonnel Lim, Juan Madariaga, Karl Morales, Carol Narvacan, Ruben Ortega, Elmar Perez, Willie Pulido, Eugene Pulmano, Jesus Relos, Ramon Santos-Ocampo, Romeo Saavedra, Menandro Siozon, George Soo, Remedios Suntay, Ma. Milan Tambunting, Jaime Galvez-Tan, K. C. Tan, Catherine Teh, Annabelle Vergel de Dios, Alex Yap, and others. Thank you also to the countless non-doctors (especially Robert F. Kuan, chairman of St. Luke’s Medical Center, and the nurses of four hospitals), who worked, prayed, visited, and watched with us through the long, dark night of Medy’s battle with bile.
20 January 2009
Paradox of Philippine education
I have often wondered why Filipinos who speak bad English, who have no doctorates in English language or linguistics, who have never lived or worked in the USA or UK, who have never taught in the public schools, or whose children do not study in public schools are the most vocal advocates of the exclusive use of the English language as the medium of instruction in all our public schools. On the other hand, Filipino language scholars with American doctorates in linguistics, who speak English as good as if not better than Americans, who have published books and scholarly articles in English in international journals, or who have been in the Department of Education and know the problems of public education firsthand are unanimous in opposing such stupid moves. Only in the Philippines!
07 January 2009
Thank you for praying for Medy
With so many praying so hard for so long for my wife Remedios "Medy" Cruz to overcome several medical crises, God granted her a new lease on life. Yesterday (January 6), her doctor at St. Luke's Medical Center pronounced her cured after 7 months of agony. She still has to gain back some of the 30 pounds she lost since her first operation, but she has returned to work at China Bank, bought clothes a few sizes smaller, and started to enjoy life without pain. This miracle would never have happened had it not been for your great concern and faith. Thank you very much. I owe you big time.
01 January 2009
23 December 2008
Medy Cruz update
After a third operation, this time done at St. Luke's Medical Center, my wife Remedios "Medy" Cruz has been finally cured. She still has to worry about infection and biliary cirrhosis, but with proper care, she should fully recover in a month or so. The operation was another Roux-n-y, to repair the damage done by the first operation (a laparoscopic cholecystectomy that cut her main bile duct) and the second operation (a failed Roux-n-y). I thank all those that joined the prayer warriors. I thank all the saints in heaven that interceded for her. Most of all, I thank the Lord for giving her yet another lease on life. We all learned from this terrible experience - the doctors that they are not infallible but can do wonders, my friends that their prayers are effective, my family that we have many friends, myself that I am not alone in suffering and in joy. God bless everyone! Happy birthday, Jesus! I love you all!
10 December 2008
All Souls' Day 2008
Remembering Artists
Every All Souls' Day, I remember dear artists and writers whose lives I shared all too briefly: Felicito Abiva, Shirley Advincula, Carol Afan, Nick Agudo, Wilfredo Alberca, Asuncion Albert, Estrella Alfon, Zeneida Amador, Lilia Pablo Amansec, Ang Kiukok, Carlos Angeles, Pacifico N. Aprieto, Francisco Arcellana, Liwayway Arceo, Monico Atienza, Lamberto Avellana, Jose Ayala, Inday Badiday, Concesa Baduel, Filemon “Billy” Balbastro Jr., Gopal Baratham, Corinta Barranco, Nazario D. Bas, Brigido C. Batungbakal, Manuel Principe Bautista, Betty Go-Belmonte, Luis Beltran, Leonidas Benesa, Teodoro Benigno, Trinidad Benito, Ishmael Bernal, Benjamin Bernales, Mike Bigornia, Nida Blanca, Mario Bolasco, Raul Bonoan SJ, Art Borjal, Santi Bose, Lino Brocka, Jose Buhain, Aurelio Calderon, Jeremias A. Calixto, Giovanni Calvo, George Canseco, Guadalupe Carbonell, Celso Carunungan, Gabriel Casal, Levi Celerio, Claro Ceniza, Renato Constantino, Adrian Cristobal, Andres Cristobal Cruz, Jesus Cruz, Jose Cruz SJ, Patricia Melendrez-Cruz, Concepcion Dadufalza, Edilberto Dagot, Petronilo Bn. Daroy, Joy de Castro, Pio De Castro III, Horacio de la Costa, Adul de Leon, Ricaredo Demetillo, Francisco Demetrio, Eduardo Deveza, Fe Dizon, Rafael Donato FSC, Maria Luisa Doronila, Martin Drury, Antonio Dulalia, Antony Easthope, Jean Edades, Anacleta Encarnacion, Emigdio Enriquez, Virgilio Enriquez, Nieves Epistola, S. V. Epistola, Merito Espinas, Clemencia Espiritu, Aurelio Estanislao, Ariston Estrada, Frankie Evangelista, Winnie Evangelista, Doreen Fernandez, Pacita Fernandez, Rudy Fernandez, Wili Fernandez, Marcelino Foronda, Henry Francia, Hilario Francia Jr., Lamberto Ma. Gabriel, Carolina Garcia, Rita Gomez, Andrew Gonzalez FSC, NVM Gonzalez, Salvador Gonzalez, Leonor Orosa-Goquingco, Joey Gosengfiao, Sidney Greenbaum, Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero, Luisa Mallari-Hall, Atang de la Rama Hernandez, Sid Gomez Hildawa, Eduardo Hontiveros SJ, Alejandrino Hufana, Dominador Ilio, J. Eddie Infante, Nick Joaquin, Estelita Juco, Ogie Juliano, Lucrecia Kasilag, Maria Kalaw Katigbak, Emmanuel Lacaba, Amado Lacuesta Jr., Serafin Lanot, Jose Lansang Jr., Pura Kalaw Ledesma, Leandro Locsin, Raul Locsin, Salvador P. Lopez, Rogelio Lota, Ella Luansing, Mochtar Lubis, Jose Maceda, Fidela “Tiya Dely” Mendoza-Magpayo, Cesar Majul, Armando Malay, Frank Mallo, Vicente Manansala, Raul Manglapus, E. Arsenio Manuel, Antonio Manuud, Bert Marcelo, Nonoy Marcelo, Josefina Mariano, Epifanio Matute, Isagani Medina, Felicidad Mendoza, Eddie Mercado, Helen Meriz, Maningning Miclat, Graham Millington, Carminia Miraflor, Dominador Mirasol, Lina Espina Moore, Alfredo Morales, Santiago Adv. Mulato, Orlando Nadres, Julie Fe Navarro, Clovis Nazareno, Ana Maria Escalante-Neri, Antonio Ma. Nieva, Evaristo Nievera, Valerio Nofuente, Wilfrido Nolledo, Bienvenido Noriega Jr., Alfeo Nudas SJ, Ramon Obusan, Onib Olmedo, Blas Ople, Sedfrey Ordoñez, Franklin Osorio, Fe Otanes, Rey Paguio, Loreto Paras-Sulit, Emy Pascasio, Benjamin M. Pascual, Benjamin P. Pascual, Guillermo Pesigan, Manuel Pichel, Joaquin Po, Andy Poe, Fernando Poe Jr., Nina Estrada Puyat, Carlos Quirino, Jose Quirino, Jess Ramos, Felicitas Reyes, Godofredo S. Reyes, Evelyn Ribaya, Carolina Rionda, Pete Roa, Ruth Roa, Raul S. Roco, Francisco Rodrigo, Ma. Teresa Escoda Roxas, Ben Rubio, Bonifacio Salamanca, Alfrredo Navarro Salanga, Dionisio Salazar, Oscar Salazar, Leopoldo Salcedo, Rachel San Miguel, Lucio San Pedro, Romulo Sandoval, Josefa Saniel, Cirio Santiago, Bienvenido N. Santos, William Henry Scott, Raman Selden, Jesus Sibal, Bonifacio Sibayan, Rogelio Sicat, Chat Silayan, Vic Silayan, Felixberto Sta. Maria, Elpidio Sta. Romana, Osmundo Sta. Romana, Vito C. Santos, Agustin Sotto, Trinidad Tarrosa Subido, Conchita Sunico, Josefina A. Tabujara, Alfredo Tiamson, Edilberto K. Tiempo, Rolando Tinio, Lito Tiongson, Romeo Togonon, Cesario Torres, Filonila Tupas, Vic Vargas, Joven Velasco, Rey Ventura, Danny Villanueva, Rene O. Villanueva, Manuel Viray, Wilfredo Virtusio, Virgilio Vito, Yoshiko Wakayama, Mary Walter, and Leopoldo Yabes.
I also remember my bridge-playing friends (Linda Campos, Phyllis Harvey, Syed Zeyaul Hoda, Paquito Javier, Dioscoro Papa, Helen Saad, Vic Santiago, Teresa Yuchengco, and Sachiko Zobel), my fellow Fulbrighters (Corazon Agrava, Marcelo Fernan, and Max Soliven), my fellow UPSCANs (Francisco Abao Jr., Ramon Casas, Violeta Calvo-Drilon, Mervyn Encanto, Generoso Gil, Bienvenido M. Lim Jr., Emmeline Quinio, Wilfrido Santiano, and Raquel Zaraspe-Ordoñez), and my literary sister Lina Santos Cortes Raquion (daughter of my literary father Bienvenido N. Santos).
Please say a special prayer for my mother Pacita Ronquillo Cruz, in her youth a short story writer, and my father Ricardo Castillo Cruz, a scientist who loved to read.
(Published in The Philippine Star, 30 October 2008)
Every All Souls' Day, I remember dear artists and writers whose lives I shared all too briefly: Felicito Abiva, Shirley Advincula, Carol Afan, Nick Agudo, Wilfredo Alberca, Asuncion Albert, Estrella Alfon, Zeneida Amador, Lilia Pablo Amansec, Ang Kiukok, Carlos Angeles, Pacifico N. Aprieto, Francisco Arcellana, Liwayway Arceo, Monico Atienza, Lamberto Avellana, Jose Ayala, Inday Badiday, Concesa Baduel, Filemon “Billy” Balbastro Jr., Gopal Baratham, Corinta Barranco, Nazario D. Bas, Brigido C. Batungbakal, Manuel Principe Bautista, Betty Go-Belmonte, Luis Beltran, Leonidas Benesa, Teodoro Benigno, Trinidad Benito, Ishmael Bernal, Benjamin Bernales, Mike Bigornia, Nida Blanca, Mario Bolasco, Raul Bonoan SJ, Art Borjal, Santi Bose, Lino Brocka, Jose Buhain, Aurelio Calderon, Jeremias A. Calixto, Giovanni Calvo, George Canseco, Guadalupe Carbonell, Celso Carunungan, Gabriel Casal, Levi Celerio, Claro Ceniza, Renato Constantino, Adrian Cristobal, Andres Cristobal Cruz, Jesus Cruz, Jose Cruz SJ, Patricia Melendrez-Cruz, Concepcion Dadufalza, Edilberto Dagot, Petronilo Bn. Daroy, Joy de Castro, Pio De Castro III, Horacio de la Costa, Adul de Leon, Ricaredo Demetillo, Francisco Demetrio, Eduardo Deveza, Fe Dizon, Rafael Donato FSC, Maria Luisa Doronila, Martin Drury, Antonio Dulalia, Antony Easthope, Jean Edades, Anacleta Encarnacion, Emigdio Enriquez, Virgilio Enriquez, Nieves Epistola, S. V. Epistola, Merito Espinas, Clemencia Espiritu, Aurelio Estanislao, Ariston Estrada, Frankie Evangelista, Winnie Evangelista, Doreen Fernandez, Pacita Fernandez, Rudy Fernandez, Wili Fernandez, Marcelino Foronda, Henry Francia, Hilario Francia Jr., Lamberto Ma. Gabriel, Carolina Garcia, Rita Gomez, Andrew Gonzalez FSC, NVM Gonzalez, Salvador Gonzalez, Leonor Orosa-Goquingco, Joey Gosengfiao, Sidney Greenbaum, Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero, Luisa Mallari-Hall, Atang de la Rama Hernandez, Sid Gomez Hildawa, Eduardo Hontiveros SJ, Alejandrino Hufana, Dominador Ilio, J. Eddie Infante, Nick Joaquin, Estelita Juco, Ogie Juliano, Lucrecia Kasilag, Maria Kalaw Katigbak, Emmanuel Lacaba, Amado Lacuesta Jr., Serafin Lanot, Jose Lansang Jr., Pura Kalaw Ledesma, Leandro Locsin, Raul Locsin, Salvador P. Lopez, Rogelio Lota, Ella Luansing, Mochtar Lubis, Jose Maceda, Fidela “Tiya Dely” Mendoza-Magpayo, Cesar Majul, Armando Malay, Frank Mallo, Vicente Manansala, Raul Manglapus, E. Arsenio Manuel, Antonio Manuud, Bert Marcelo, Nonoy Marcelo, Josefina Mariano, Epifanio Matute, Isagani Medina, Felicidad Mendoza, Eddie Mercado, Helen Meriz, Maningning Miclat, Graham Millington, Carminia Miraflor, Dominador Mirasol, Lina Espina Moore, Alfredo Morales, Santiago Adv. Mulato, Orlando Nadres, Julie Fe Navarro, Clovis Nazareno, Ana Maria Escalante-Neri, Antonio Ma. Nieva, Evaristo Nievera, Valerio Nofuente, Wilfrido Nolledo, Bienvenido Noriega Jr., Alfeo Nudas SJ, Ramon Obusan, Onib Olmedo, Blas Ople, Sedfrey Ordoñez, Franklin Osorio, Fe Otanes, Rey Paguio, Loreto Paras-Sulit, Emy Pascasio, Benjamin M. Pascual, Benjamin P. Pascual, Guillermo Pesigan, Manuel Pichel, Joaquin Po, Andy Poe, Fernando Poe Jr., Nina Estrada Puyat, Carlos Quirino, Jose Quirino, Jess Ramos, Felicitas Reyes, Godofredo S. Reyes, Evelyn Ribaya, Carolina Rionda, Pete Roa, Ruth Roa, Raul S. Roco, Francisco Rodrigo, Ma. Teresa Escoda Roxas, Ben Rubio, Bonifacio Salamanca, Alfrredo Navarro Salanga, Dionisio Salazar, Oscar Salazar, Leopoldo Salcedo, Rachel San Miguel, Lucio San Pedro, Romulo Sandoval, Josefa Saniel, Cirio Santiago, Bienvenido N. Santos, William Henry Scott, Raman Selden, Jesus Sibal, Bonifacio Sibayan, Rogelio Sicat, Chat Silayan, Vic Silayan, Felixberto Sta. Maria, Elpidio Sta. Romana, Osmundo Sta. Romana, Vito C. Santos, Agustin Sotto, Trinidad Tarrosa Subido, Conchita Sunico, Josefina A. Tabujara, Alfredo Tiamson, Edilberto K. Tiempo, Rolando Tinio, Lito Tiongson, Romeo Togonon, Cesario Torres, Filonila Tupas, Vic Vargas, Joven Velasco, Rey Ventura, Danny Villanueva, Rene O. Villanueva, Manuel Viray, Wilfredo Virtusio, Virgilio Vito, Yoshiko Wakayama, Mary Walter, and Leopoldo Yabes.
I also remember my bridge-playing friends (Linda Campos, Phyllis Harvey, Syed Zeyaul Hoda, Paquito Javier, Dioscoro Papa, Helen Saad, Vic Santiago, Teresa Yuchengco, and Sachiko Zobel), my fellow Fulbrighters (Corazon Agrava, Marcelo Fernan, and Max Soliven), my fellow UPSCANs (Francisco Abao Jr., Ramon Casas, Violeta Calvo-Drilon, Mervyn Encanto, Generoso Gil, Bienvenido M. Lim Jr., Emmeline Quinio, Wilfrido Santiano, and Raquel Zaraspe-Ordoñez), and my literary sister Lina Santos Cortes Raquion (daughter of my literary father Bienvenido N. Santos).
Please say a special prayer for my mother Pacita Ronquillo Cruz, in her youth a short story writer, and my father Ricardo Castillo Cruz, a scientist who loved to read.
(Published in The Philippine Star, 30 October 2008)
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