Thursday, April 24, 2008 Editorials: The matter of fairness
AFTER the Department of Health finally identified the medical personnel involved in the rowdy and videotaped operation to remove a perfume canister stuck in the anus of a gay florist, some sectors are also demanding that the patient be identified.
Reports merely refer to the patient as “Jan-Jan” or “Danilo” and photos taken when he went to the anti-graft office showed him with his face covered by a cloth.
But that is how reporting rules go; the fairness is in the effort to ensure that the accuser won’t be subjected to further ridicule, not in identifying him because the accused has already been named.
Not the issue
The demand to divulge Jan-Jan’s identity is related to the attempt to shift the focus away from the objectionable act of the medical personnel and into the patient’s own objectionable act, the reason why a canister was stuck in his anus.
There is reason for the call, done mostly by so-called moralists, to also dwell on the matter because it involves a conduct frowned upon by the Catholic Church.
For Jan-Jan that was a lesson painfully (both in the literal and abstract terms) learned and the sight of him being operated on should be an eye opener for others.
But for the moment, what Jan-Jan did is not the issue; the action of the Vicemte Sotto Memorial Medical Center medical personnel---Dr. Philips Leo Arias, Dr. Angelo Aliwanagan, Dr. Max Joseph Montecillo, nursing attendant Rosemarie Villareal and circulating nurse Carmina Sapio---is.
This is not about homosexuality but about patient’s rights: often overlooked but which has been rightly thrust into the limelight because of this unique case.
Defense
Those who think that the VSMMC personnel were not treated fairly should focus on this issue and not waste time getting even by trying drag the patient into the open and
hoping he will be stoned.
Instead, they should call on the medical personnel concerned to defend themselves well in the investigation conducted or, better still, face the media and clarify matters instead of hiding.
The public can’t come up with an objective assessment of what happened with only Jan-Jan and those who were not around during the operation doing the talking.
