Hope for burn victims

Batas Mauricio

I CONGRATULATE Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo for their having won the May 2016 presidential and vice presidential elections, as attested to by the final tally made by our lawmakers sitting as members of the National Board of Canvassers.

This notwithstanding, I urge Robredo’s losing rival, Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., to pursue his plan to file an election protest even if this is going to be another dragging and bruising fight in his hands. There is just too much evidence of cheating against him for him to simply accept the results that saw his initial lead of a million votes vanishing after a computer manipulation by Smartmatic.

Insofar as Duterte is concerned, our countrymen are now waiting for him to deliver on his promises, particularly on wiping our drug lords and criminal syndicates. For Robredo, let us pray her victory is not the Plan B of the losing Liberal Party which had been bruited about before May 9 as the Aquino government’s maneuver to oust Duterte.

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I was invited to a lunch tendered by the Physicians for Peace Philippines (PFP) last Thursday to see for myself how men and women whose bodies were burned and mutilated by fire in the not-too-distant past are coping with life.

And was I shocked to learn that despite the huge budget of the Department of Health yearly–the sum was P87.6 billion for 2015–it has no program to rehabilitate the victims, and help them return to the mainstream of social life! Of course, this neglect of many ailing Filipinos is a given, under the Aquino government, but burned victims should be given special treatment.

The reason, I was told by PFP country representative Lyne Abanilla, a veteran in socio-charitable work for the poor and the marginalized even when she was yet the vice president for advertising of the Manila Bulletin, is this: unlike other medical patients who easily recover, burn victims take much more to recover not only from the physical deformity of their bodies but from their depression as well.

I saw, for example, that even after their burned bodies have healed, the burn victims have to wrap themselves thoroughly when they have to meet other people, to hide their scars and their deformities, which maybe an unwelcome sight to many. This alone prevents them from trying to seek employment or engaging in gainful work or simply socializing as before.

This is a sure recipe for grave depression, which can often lead to unsavory results, like bad moods and tempers, suicide attempts which can be successful at times, or simply leading closeted or hermetic life styles. With no one–not even the DOH-eally dedicated to assist these victims, the outlook is often dim and, indeed, fatal.

Thus, I was really thankful–and so were the burn victims that I met, whose stories I shall try to write about here later–that PFP is trying to help them, medically and psychologically, like treating them to entertainment at sites. Maybe others who are much more blessed can share in this endeavor by calling Lyne, 0932 849 9212.

E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com