Tuli: An under-the-knife initiation to manhood

Thursday, May 5, 2011

SUMMER is usually a time for kids to be out in the sun and have some fun.

But for the more than 50 kids from different areas in Cagayan de Oro, this summer is different – it was the time for them to lay on the table and allow themselves to be under the knife for that once-in-a-lifetime experience: circumcision.

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On Sunday, May 1, as hundreds of militant groups trooped to the streets and called for the 125 across-the-board wage increase and denounced “contractualization” against the government, more than 50 kids aged six to 14 years old also gathered at the gymnasium of the 4th Infantry “Diamond” Division of the Philippine Army in Camp Evangelista in Barangay Patag, not to go against the government but to avail of the free circumcision offered by the 4th ID, in partnership with the Philippine College of Surgeon-Northern Mindanao Chapter.

The circumcision was done simultaneously by both doctors of the 4th ID and the Philippine College of Surgeon-Northern Mindanao Chapter that the activity was done by almost noontime.

Kids are kids and some of them can’t bear even little pain so cries and shouts echoed out within the gymnasium while the “operation tuli” was going on.

But of course, their parents were there to console them though some parents claimed to have almost collapsed upon seeing their sons going through some pain.

“I really felt the pain,” one parent said.

One doctor was overheard as saying: “It is the father who would sometimes felt the pain, some would even collapse.”

After the operation, the children were given antibiotics and pain relievers courtesy of the PCS -Northern Mindanao Chapter.

The “operation tuli” was spearheaded by Major General Victor A. Felix, Commanding General of the 4th Infantry Division, and Dr. John Pastor, team leader of the PCS regional chapter.