An apology to Dr. Alfredo Bengzon

A supposed-to-be feel-good Sunday feature that I wrote (p. 1, Inquirer, Nov. 25) turned out to be feel-bad thing, not just for the persons and institutions concerned but also for me, the writer, as well.

I made a mistake—not deliberate, of course—and I am sorry.

The front page story was on the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health’s (ASMPH) bold move in medical education (“Ateneo graduates in 5 years MDs and MBAs”) which is something unprecedented. The story went well until the last portion where I wrote: “Bengzon, an Atenean who finished medicine at the University of the Philippines, recalls speaking at his alma mater and saying that UP had become a staging area for doctors ‘tailor-made to be exported abroad.’”

Dr. Bengzon, ASMPH dean, denies having said that that “UP had become a staging area for doctors ‘tailor-made to be exported abroad.’”

I must state here that it caused him pain and embarrassment especially. UP is, in fact, helping ASMPH by providing the needed faculty. The Ateneo, UP and La Salle University systems have, among themselves, a memorandum of agreement on sharing of faculty.

UP itself has, in fact, created a medical curriculum that exposes their graduates to health problems in poor communities and the systemic and structural problems in society that affect people’s health.

After Dr. Bengzon and I had gone over what transpired at the three-hour-or-so conversation/interview some months ago where he talked about ASMPH, I agree that I had misquoted him and taken his statements out of context.



He had spoken about medical schools’ curricula, the mismatch of the training of doctors and the realities in society and “staging areas” for societal reforms and health outcomes. He spoke about doctors not just as clinicians but as managers and leaders who would be catalysts of change in society. And so the training of doctors should not simply remain in the curative mode but should be preventive as well—with doctors-managers-leaders helping to address the “disconnection” between sick individuals and a sick society.

Dr. Bengzon, a former secretary of health and chief negotiator representing government on the staying or removal of the US bases, is not just a medical doctor, he is also a manager. He has a master’s degree in business administration and is CEO of The Medical City, the training hospital of ASMPH.

But let me explain why that wayward quote came about. I had the jargon mixed up in my notes and thought that when Dr. Bengzon recalled speaking at the UP during the centennial celebration, the issue of UP’s medical graduates going on an exodus for foreign lands was something he brought up. What candor, I thought, that this UP alumnus would say this, no holds barred, to his alma matter. That was the reason why I thought a quote like that would not cause a stir. A quote which, in my stupidity, I thought and believed I heard.

While doctors leaving the Philippines in droves is an issue, Dr. Bengzon clarified that this issue is not exclusive to graduates of any teaching medical institution. And he was not singling out UP. And I say this: he was not out to single out UP to make Ateneo look good.

I had spoken to UP-Manila chancellor Dr. Ramon Arcadio to help clear the air and the soft-spoken chancellor told me that he tried to take the wayward quote with humor. Like, UP’s medical graduates must be that good that they “are tailor-made for export”.

The quote did not sit well with UP’s faculty and Dr. Bengzon suddenly found himself under fire. And it was not his fault. The fault was mine.

I am a graduate of the Ateneo myself and I would not want to jeopardize my alma mater’s relationship with another great institution of learning.

I hope to make something positive out of this. Like doing a story on the state of medical education in the Philippines. Many medical schools, I am told, deserve to be padlocked.

I believe we could find a way to turn a bad situation into something positive. Like when my car was stolen, I wrote a long investigative series on carnapping, carjacking, chop-chop, people and institutions in cahoots, etc.

I am sorry, I apologize. I have a good reputation as a journalist, I am not a careless journalist who would invent and put words into people’s mouths, or unnecessarily pit one person against another or cause unnecessary pain or embarrassment. But I make mistakes too. This is a humbling experience but this does not mean I will be treading on eggs from now on or freeze in my tracks.

I would have wanted to tackle in today’s column piece UP’s ladder-system School of Health Sciences in the provinces and the Ateneo Professional School’s Leaders for Health Program but these two trail-blazing efforts deserve a bigger space. So next week, this will be.

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ICOMOS (International Council for Monuments and Sites) is holding a meeting in Banaue from Dec. 2-8, and has invited international heritage experts to the Philippines for the first time to discuss conservation and the socio-economic issues. Inquirer columnist Augusto Villalon is Philippine chairman of the ICOMOS executive committee in Paris.

On top of the agenda are the endangered Rice Terraces of the Cordilleras, a UNESCO-inscribed World Heritage Site. Endangered because of physical deterioration and because the resident population that has always maintained the site is having difficulty with the preservation job in this 21st century. International experts will present case studies showing steps taken in other world sites with similar issues.

Preserving heritage would be a lost cause unless it is made relevant to the host communities and becomes part of development and income generation.

Tempest in Tanon

“The State shall protect and advance the right of the people to a balanced and healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature. -Article II, Sec. 16 of the Philippine Constitution

I imagine the Lord of the Sea wading to shore wearing raiment of corals and sea grass and--flotsam surrendered by the sea. Thundering, roaring like the wind in a lost empty city, he seeks the despoilers of his ocean home and the home of gentle sea creatures that inhabit the earth and provide food for its inhabitants.

Where are they. He roars. Who are they, they who laid waste the ocean garden.

This scenario plays like a movie in my mind, it surges in my consciousness like the thoughts and images I had long ago while beholding, somewhere, the sea in its threatening beauty. And I imagine now the threatened Tanon Strait in the Visayan Sea as it waits to be visited by turbulence in the form of exploratory drilling for gas.

The sea is a-boil. A slow, symphonic movement takes a sudden turn and climaxes with a roll of drums and a clash of cymbals. The sea quakes to a crescendo, then hurls itself against the wind. Here before you is a concerto at its most tempestuous peak. Water breaking into a million crystalline pieces. It is pure music and fury. Salt melts in your eyes. Suddenly you are no longer afraid.

A battle royale is set to unfold if Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. (Japex) starts exploring for oil on Tanon Strait without having hearkened to protesting communities, scientists and environmental advocates who are asking that exploration be put on hold while the sea itself is to be explored to find out how much of it will live and how much will die.



Former environment secretary Dr. Angel Alcala, director of Silliman University’s center for marine and environment research in Dumaguete City, and his team have come out with a paper explaining what the drilling will mean. It also proposes a technical survey of the strait as a safeguard against potential adverse effects of the exploration. (Drilling was supposed to start last week.)

What and where is Tanon Strait? The strait is part of the Visayan Sea, that body of water separating the island provinces of Cebu and Negros, and Cebu-Bohol Strait; separating the provinces of Cebu and Bohol, as well as the waters of Antique, Leyte, Palawan, Mindoro Occidental, Albay and Camarines Sur. The Visayan Sea is one of the richest marine habitats of the world.

Tanon Strait is a protected area, having been declared such under Pres. Proc. 1234 during the Estrada presidency.

The drilling is supposed to be done off Aloguinsan and Pinamungajan in Cebu, surely not far from Dumaguete City, the university town in Negros Oriental. According to Alcala, several community-based marine protected areas (MPAs) have been established in both the Cebu and Negros side of the strait and the local government units have been investing funds in the management of these MPAs.

Alcala adds that oil exploration (both the seismic exploration and drilling itself) has been proven in other countries to be detrimental to marine life, the Philippines has yet to come up with findings to back this up. Does this mean we don’t wanna know?

Here is the proposition: “To gather data on marine mammals and fish catch; do oceanographic studies (total suspended solids, oil and grease, current patterns) before the actual drilling is conducted, so that there will be proof that can stand in any court of law later on should there be adverse impacts on the environment because of the drilling. An economic valuation study will also be conducted to prove that NOT drilling for oil and gas is beneficial to the communities in the area and to the country in the long run.”

And, by the way, the strait is one of the few places in the world inhabited by special species of marine mammals, among them, the elusive pygmy sperm whales. But more importantly, the strait is fishing ground for communities in Cebu and Negros.

It is worth noting that 11 congressmen and --women have filed a resolution directing the House Committee on Natural Resources to investigate the impact of offshore mining in the Visayan Sea. This resolution was triggered by gas companies (Japex of Japan and The Forum Exploration Inc of Canada) entering into a seven-year contract with the Philippine government for oil and gas exploration, and another 25 years for the extraction and controlling process.

The province of Cebu did not take this sitting down. The Sangguniang Panlalawigan approved last July a resolution exhorting Congress to proclaim the Visayan Sea as Marine Reservation and Heritage Site, the Visayan Sea “being host to the world’s richest marine biodiversity area.”

The Sulu Sea had been identified as a disposal site for drillings. Alcala howls: “But the Sulu Sea is a prime fishing area and has high biodiversity!”

He adds that the Initial Environmental Examination (IEE) was not sufficient and based on old data and “cannot be used as baselines for future monitoring of drilling effects and therefore not acceptable.”

How did Japex gather the data, how are the data and their credibility to be verified? Alcala and his team have discovered holes in the IEE and concluded: “We found the IEE document wanting in the critical survey data and information needed for determining the environmental and socio-economic impacts of the proposed drilling operation of Japex.”

After the tumult is over and the threat gone, we hope to hear in the Tanon Strait only the music of the cathedral waves eternally folding and unfolding.

Suicide has no heroes

The media frenzy, the blame game, the breast-beating, the outpouring of sympathy and the if-onlys that followed turned out to be more surreal than the suicide itself.

Everybody and everybody had something to say about 12-year-old Marianette Amper of Davao City, about her diary, her family’s poverty, her dreams and dashed hopes. And how she ended it all with a rope. So young and so despairing.

Someone’s got to take the blame--was the undying refrain, the knee-jerk reaction of many. And why not. Manette’s lot in life was indeed something for the yagit telenovelas and bleeding-heart movies that truly resonate with many Filipinos, both poor and not so poor.

But suicide, as psychotherapists would tell us, is not as simple as cause and effect or this equals that. Not everyone who goes through what Manette had gone through, not everyone whose life is more difficult that hers would want to end his or her life.



But why--is the question most people ask of the most unlikely suicides. While in the case of Manette, the most likely remark most people would say was, but why not. Or, but of course. She was poor, though not the poorest. But it is not as simple as that.

There was this pop song that became a hit among the young more than a decade ago, and it was about suicide being painless. ``Suicide is painless,’’ it says, ``it brings on many changes.’’ When I quoted this line some years ago (after the death of a son of a senator) I was surprised to get a barrage of emails from readers who supplied the rest of the lyrics.

In the case of Manette, her passing brought on many reactions and actions that could translate into meaningful changes. I hope there are no more Manettes out there who would resort to suicide to bring on changes. A psychotherapist I know well who will be probing deeper into this case told me that “there are many factors that combine and interact and we have to know how they work together. Then we can find ways to prevent it and also prevent other children from imitating.”

The book ``Survivors of Suicide’’ by Rita Robinson, an award-winning journalist specializing in health and psychology, is a good book on the subject. Robinson’s book draws from the experiences of the survivors and the bereaved as well as those of the scientific experts, therapists and law enforcers. The first chapters describe the impact, shock, grief and guilt of the surviving next of kin.

Robinson lists 17 suicide myths, the wrong beliefs about suicide. Some of them are: that people who threaten to kill themselves don’t really mean it, that there is no forewarning, that one shouldn’t confront the person who is suicidal, that those who commit suicide are insane, that suicidal people want nothing more than to die, that it runs in families, that religious people are less likely to commit suicide.

Who commits suicide? How does clinical depression lead to suicide, how does the brain react to depression? Getting help is very important.

The blame game is tackled too. It is tough for those who are mentioned in suicide notes, especially if they are young. Although it is natural to blame someone, it is important for survivors not to place or accept blame.

The book gives historical perspectives and discusses ancient attitudes, the attempts to unlock the mystery of suicide and the role of societies in suicide. Perspectives from the great religious traditions are examined as well. And finally, how to prevent suicides, the role of guns, warning signs, etc.

But the most interesting, the stuff that hold the reader (as Robinson, the journalist, would know) are the true-to-life cases, the testimonies of those who’ve had to go through the tragedy and, in the case of suicidals, the temptation. Robinson also offers media guidelines and tackles teen suicide.

Health institutions like the Centers for Disease Control have come up with guidelines for schools. Here are some. It is important to stress that suicide is the result of a dysfunctional behavior by a troubled personality. Reduce the identification with the actions of the deceased, and reaffirm that it was the fault (decision) of the person who committed suicide and not someone else. And one very important thing—don’t’ glorify the death or prolong praises and tributes for the diseased. Teenagers could get ideas, you know.

Here are media guidelines from CDC: Reporting should be concise and factual. Excessive or sensational reporting can lead to contagion. (Think of the many suicidal Filipinos who keep using the giant billboards as their launching pad.) Reporting technical aspects of the suicide is not necessary. Suicide should not be presented as an effective coping strategy. Suicide should not be glorified. Expressions of grief such as public eulogies and public memorials should be minimized.

Robinson notes that the World Health Organization reported that in the last 45 years, the suicide rate has increased 60 percent worldwide. Suicide is now among the three leading causes of death of people aged 15 to 44.

The song ``Vincent’’ is about art genius Vincent van Gogh’s choice to cut short his own stint in this world. It begins with ``Starry, starry night, paint your palette blue and gray,’’ and ends with ``Vincent this world is not meant for those as beautiful as you.’’

It is a masterpiece of eulogy set to music, like Van Gogh’s paintings of sunflowers and starry nights. But I disagree with its fuga mundi (flight from the world) theme at the end.

Sure, there are lessons to be learned. But let’s not make Manette a hero or martyr-saint. She was a precious 12-year-old kid going through a dark night.

Suicide and the blame game

The media frenzy, the blame game, the breast-beating, the outpouring of sympathy and the if-onlys that followed turned out to be more surreal than the suicide itself.

Everybody and everybody had something to say about 12-year-old Marianette Amper of Davao City, about her diary, her family’s poverty, her dreams and dashed hopes. And how she ended it all with a rope. So young and so despairing.

Someone’s got to take the blame--was the undying refrain, the knee-jerk reaction of many. And why not. Manette’s lot in life was indeed something for the yagit telenovelas and bleeding-heart movies that truly resonate with many Filipinos, both poor and not so poor.

But suicide, as psychotherapists would tell us, is not as simple as cause and effect or this equals that. Not everyone who goes through what Manette had gone through, not everyone whose life is more difficult that hers would want to end his or her life.

But why--is the question most people ask of the most unlikely suicides. While in the case of Manette, the most likely remark most people would say was, but why not. Or, but of course. She was poor, though not the poorest. But it is not as simple as that.



There was this pop song that became a hit among the young more than a decade ago, and it was about suicide being painless. ``Suicide is painless,’’ it says, ``it brings on many changes.’’ When I quoted this line some years ago (after the death of a son of a senator) I was surprised to get a barrage of emails from readers who supplied the rest of the lyrics.

In the case of Manette, her passing brought on many reactions and actions that could translate into meaningful changes. I hope there are no more Manettes out there who would resort to suicide to bring on changes. A psychotherapist I know well who will be probing deeper into this case told me that “there are many factors that combine and interact and we have to know how they work together. Then we can find ways to prevent it and also prevent other children from imitating.”

The book ``Survivors of Suicide’’ by Rita Robinson, an award-winning journalist specializing in health and psychology, is a good book on the subject. Robinson’s book draws from the experiences of the survivors and the bereaved as well as those of the scientific experts, therapists and law enforcers. The first chapters describe the impact, shock, grief and guilt of the surviving next of kin.

Robinson lists 17 suicide myths, the wrong beliefs about suicide. Some of them are: that people who threaten to kill themselves don’t really mean it, that there is no forewarning, that one shouldn’t confront the person who is suicidal, that those who commit suicide are insane, that suicidal people want nothing more than to die, that it runs in families, that religious people are less likely to commit suicide.

Who commits suicide? How does clinical depression lead to suicide, how does the brain react to depression? Getting help is very important.

The blame game is tackled too. It is tough for those who are mentioned in suicide notes, especially if they are young. Although it is natural to blame someone, it is important for survivors not to place or accept blame.

The book gives historical perspectives and discusses ancient attitudes, the attempts to unlock the mystery of suicide and the role of societies in suicide. Perspectives from the great religious traditions are examined as well. And finally, how to prevent suicides, the role of guns, warning signs, etc.

But the most interesting, the stuff that hold the reader (as Robinson, the journalist, would know) are the true-to-life cases, the testimonies of those who’ve had to go through the tragedy and, in the case of suicidals, the temptation. Robinson also offers media guidelines and tackles teen suicide.

Health institutions like the Centers for Disease Control have come up with guidelines for schools. Here are some. It is important to stress that suicide is the result of a dysfunctional behavior by a troubled personality. Reduce the identification with the actions of the deceased, and reaffirm that it was the fault (decision) of the person who committed suicide and not someone else. And one very important thing—don’t’ glorify the death or prolong praises and tributes for the diseased. Teenagers could get ideas, you know.

Here are media guidelines from CDC: Reporting should be concise and factual. Excessive or sensational reporting can lead to contagion. (Think of the many suicidal Filipinos who keep using the giant billboards as their launching pad.) Reporting technical aspects of the suicide is not necessary. Suicide should not be presented as an effective coping strategy. Suicide should not be glorified. Expressions of grief such as public eulogies and public memorials should be minimized.

Robinson notes that the World Health Organization reported that in the last 45 years, the suicide rate has increased 60 percent worldwide. Suicide is now among the three leading causes of death of people aged 15 to 44.

The song ``Vincent’’ is about art genius Vincent van Gogh’s choice to cut short his own stint in this world. It begins with ``Starry, starry night, paint your palette blue and gray,’’ and ends with ``Vincent this world is not meant for those as beautiful as you.’’

It is a masterpiece of eulogy set to music, like Van Gogh’s paintings of sunflowers and starry nights. But I disagree with its fuga mundi (flight from the world) theme at the end.

Sure, there are lessons to be learned. But let’s not make Manette a hero or martyr-saint. She was a precious 12-year-old kid going through a dark night.

Rock and refuge: NPC then

It was our rock and refuge. It was our sanctuary during the dying days of martial rule. That was the National Press Club for us in the early 1980s. Many of us were greenhorns in journalism then, upstart freelancers from the so-called mosquito press (okay, alternative, and sometimes underground--and underwater if you were the “Ichthys” type) who made bold forays into the mainstream media and were continually at odds with the Marcos military. Hunted, surveilled, “invited”, manacled and thrown into jail.

Standing tall by the banks of the Pasig River was the NPC which was founded and built by the generation of journalists before ours, a good number of whom bore the brunt of military fury when the reign of terror began in 1972. The founders did not build the NPC in the 1950s for the purpose that served us in the 1980s. It was supposed to be a club, a watering hole for the old boys who wanted to unwind after a day’s work at the editorial office or on the beat. Not long after, the culturati and the literati also made it their haunt.

Vicente Manasala’s mural on lawanit in the dining hall gave it ambience. The mural (gone and sold I don’t know where) withstood the smoke, grime and slime from overbearing journalists who thought the masterpiece was their birthright.



But when darkness descended on the media in 1972 and caught many of them off guard, the NPC began to get transformed from a happy-hour place into a fortress. It was no longer just a watering hole but also a gathering hall for those who valued press freedom.

In the 1980s, it was our upstart generation’s turn to flock to the place and turn it into our refuge and sanctuary. The Plaridel Hall (named after hero Marcelo H. del Pilar) on the third floor was a favorite venue, not just of journalists, but also of those from other sectors (labor, church, students, urban poor, civil society) who wanted to say something loud and subversive.

I have kept two embroidered NPC patches with the words “Don’t shoot journalists.” That was when journalists were considered endangered species. (We are again endangered now). We wore them on our sleeves, lapels and breast pockets. I wanted to wear them again recently but the year on them would make me look dated indeed.

But what other activities, aside from forums and discussions, did journalists plot and hatch at the NPC during those martial law days?

We did books! And I have copies of those books. We did “Press Freedom Under Siege” Volume 1 (1984) and Volume 2 (1985). It was the Women Writers in Media Now (Women) that poured a lot into these books. I remember staying late up to NPC’s closing time with Jo-Ann Q. Maglipon and Noree A. Briscoe so we could finish the book on time. We called ourselves the NPC’s Committee to Protect Writers’ Rights (writers’ warts, we told ourselves). Bogie Tence-Ruiz did the art work on the covers—a typewriter with barbed wire for keys for the first volume and a mock-up of a censored manuscript of a human rights story for the second volume.

We thought we had it all done well but when the finished product came out, we saw that the spelling of the word siege on the book spine was “siege”. That was a most important word and it was misspelled! It became a collector’s item.

We thought one volume would be enough but when the repression continued we had to come out with another volume. NPC president Antonio Ma. Nieva and We Forum (later Malaya) publisher and editor Jose Burgos had just emerged from the military stockade.

The articles (essays, investigative stories, column pieces) in the two volumes were those that got journalists into trouble with the powers-that-be plus pieces from great thinkers and doers who understood the role of the press. Military interrogation transcripts (as recalled) were also included.

There was another book that emerged from the NPC. It contained the proceedings of one of the no-holds-barred discussion on press censorship. I have it in my bookshelf but I couldn’t find it fast enough for now. A slew of books, theses and doctoral dissertations (I know one by an American journalist) on press freedom and how Filipino journalists fared and fought came out of this dreadful area. It was indeed a time of grit of grace.

Now a great furor continues to swirl around the National Press Club because of its officers’ decision to edit and censor its newly commissioned mural on press freedom without the knowledge and permission of the Neo-Angono artists that did it. It was an Inquirer banner story that shocked us all.

I don’t know when exactly and how NPC’s transmogrification into what it is now took place. I just know that the last time I was there, to borrow Conrad de Quiros’ recollection, was in the past century. That would be more than seven, 10 years ago. It must have been around that time that that my membership, and the membership of my women colleagues in media, ended.

It is not that we had outgrown the NPC. The NPC was just no longer what it used to be. We had moved on and there were other newer, more fearless media groups that suited our tempers and temperament.
The fire had not died. We had not changed. The NPC that our fearless, upstart generation knew had changed.

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If you need vegetable seeds, go to the Bureau of Plants in San Andres, Manila (near the fruit market). Plenty and cheap. You could get a free illustrated book on vegetable gardening in Filipino by agriculture experts if you could prove you’re serious about food production and food security for the poor.