Thursday, January 11, 2007 Magsaysay: Higher purpose By Jo Magsaysay Whatever
LOW-KEY, low-profile and laid back. Hardly the back-slapping, glad-handling, hail-fellow-ho-ho-ho, well-met type of businessman. Joe Parenno Mabugat nevertheless, has a firm handshake, a sincere and friendly smile. He becomes animated, his eyes burning with love and passion as he talks about his wife and his Mission of Mercy through the Spirit of Love.
*****
Devastated over the loss of his beautiful wife Lynda, whom he loved deeply and completely during the 40 years of their married life, Joe agonized along with her pain and suffering as she courageously fought her losing battle with cancer for three unbearable years. Joe served her devotedly, ceaselessly with his heart and his hand, throughout every minute of anxiety, misery and hopelessness, sustained only by his love for her and his unwavering faith in God’s love and mercy.
He became inconsolable after Lynda passed away, rejecting the efforts to comfort him by his brothers and sisters in the Christian community, Oasis of Love, abandoning his commitment to serve his lay ministry. In a desperate and vain attempt to assuage his grief, he sought excitement and pleasures elsewhere, only to sink deeper into emptiness and loneliness. The healing was a long and slow process until he discovered a new life, a resurgence of his faith that made him turn around from his self-pity, to reach out and touch the pitiful lives of the poor and needy with his spirit of love.
*****
A sick little boy’s needs awakened his spirit and gave new meaning and purpose to his life. He sought the advice of the nuns of the Asilo de la Milagrosa to learn more about charity works and from Marither Mata, supervisory nurse of the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC), who took him on a tour of the hospital, in particular the pediatric charity ward, overcrowded with sick children. The revelation that an average of 10 patients die every day mostly from lack of medication the poor parents could not afford, Joe Mabugat discovered his mission. "I found the joy once more in helping those who suffer."
*****
Hiring a staff of two charity workers to establish the qualifications of the indigent parents and coordinate with the nurses with what prescribed medications was required, Joe supplied the financial aid to purchase the medicines directly, to make sure the funds do not get hijacked along the way. Going all out of the way himself, he supplied the ward with electric fans, additional cots and plastic benches for those accompanying patients who slept on the floor. He provided new infant cribs and a new coat of paint so what was once a grimy and cheerless place became a bright and happy little spot for helping in the recovery of the children, infused with the bloodletting of the entire staff and personnel of the Richmond Hotel to donate blood.
***** The first 90 days of the missionary work had documented more than 100 children whose daily medicine sustenance was given financial assistance by the Mission of Mercy, earning the appreciation of Dr. Alan Monteclar, Chairman of the Pediatric Department, who declared that the mortality rate in the ward had been reduced from 11 percent to 6 percent since the sustained support. In recognition of the charity work of the Mission of Mercy, the VSMMC, through the hospital medical director, Dr. Filomena delos Santos and chief nurse, Dr. Carmelita Villanobos, presented Joe Mabugat a certificate of appreciation.
*****
A doctor had once told Joe that: "This is supposed to be the work of the government". Mabugat, pointing his finger upward, replied: "I am not doing this for the government but for Somebody up there…"
*****
Social affairs on hold, I luxuriated in the company of my family during the holidays and spent time to catch up with my reading which has deteriorated to the fast and sassy read of pulp fiction. This time, I settled down with a child’s book. A wonderfully enchanting little book, Animal Tales for Children, written by Juliet V. Basa, recipient of a Literature Grant awarded by the Cultural Center of the Philippines for writing this book. I am proud to say that Juliet is a dear friend whose precise English and flawless diction give her away as a school ma’am and that her book, published two years after her dissertation on children’s literature for her doctorate, not only has run away with a literary award, but bids fair to become the Cebuano Aesop’s Fables.
Written in Cebuano on one page, and English on the opposite, the tales about Ricky Tiki, Chamok Lamok, Lucas the dreaming carabao, Popoy the young turkey battling with King Turk and other farm animals, are funny and brave, sad and crazy, each one a loveable creature with a lesson to learn. I am recommending the book to my grandchildren in grade school, who are voracious readers, gobbling up every book in sight from comics on Archie and Veronica, following Nancy Drew in her mysteries, enjoying the adventures in Narnia, getting drawn into Charlotte’s Web, and surprisingly, appreciating the classic Little Women by Louisa May Alcott so much they are starting on Little Men. I am quite certain Juliet Basa’s book will delight them no end.
*****
Meanwhile, a colleague and good friend, Jaime Picornell, knowing I would appreciate the "writing style and turn of phrase" second only to the scandalous subject of the article, took pains to xerox copies of extracts from a book written by Sir Alan "Tommy" Lascelles, private secretary of King George VI and one of the Royal Family’s most influential aides. Shocking revelations of the man who would be King of England but who never grew up. The Prince of Wales who renounced the throne to marry the woman he loved "who had two husbands, both living." The numberless love affairs of the heir apparent "an unknown series"… "contracted and consummated in whatever highways and byways of the Empire." Little wonder that Prince Charles, the heir apparent, is following his uncle’s footsteps. (Naliwat diay).
*****
More books I must take the time to read, the magnum opus of my two other colleagues, Mila Espina’s In My Diary and Cookie Newman’s Perlas.
Meanwhile, a phone call from Dr. Henry Yu, upset that I reported he buys Sun.Star Cebu "only" on Thursday, clarifies that he buys Sun.Star daily, but specifically to read Whatever on Thursday. (Mangluod unya ang uban).
That’s okay Dr. Yu, my colleagues have their own following, a stack of fan mail of their own, and are happy and completely secure in their own niche. Not to worry at all…
*****
Did I resolve to make my columns shorter this year? Me and my big mouth!
