Think about it
Bless them who save poor people’s vision
By Jun Velasco
YOU’d mistake him for a retired movie actor ala Edmund Purdom or Gary Grant, this tall and handsome ophthalmologist who has under his care thousands of patients suffering from eye diseases in San Fabian, Pangasinan.
Dr. Guillermo de Venecia, 76, has, for more than 30 years, been doing this missionary work, together with his wife, Martha, and a group of American volunteer medical practitioners from Wisconsin, USA that has cured or benefited more than 30,000 poor patients in the Philippines.
De Venecia, a cousin of former Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr., says the mission was formed in l979 in the name of Free Rural Eye Clinic that has been doing surgical operation on indigents in some parts in the Philippines such as in San Fabian, Pangasinan; Nueva Vizcaya, Aurora and Zambales provinces.
A small staff that assists Dr. de Venecia sees to it that those who come to seek cure of cataract or glaucoma and other diseases are unemployed or belong to poor families. He says they are strict on the income factor of their patients or they earn the ire of the Philippine Medical Association members.
A native of Dagupan City, Dr. De Venecia used to work at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison. Since his retirement 30 years ago, he and wife Martha, a nurse, have been devoting their time serving the poor, using the talents God has gifted them with. But they only serve the poor who cannot afford an expensive medical care.
In its recent issue, Vision Quest, a publication of the Free Rural Clinics Corporation chaired by Dr. De Venecia himself, has an article written by J. E. Espino, a Post Crescent staff writer, about Dr. Robert Sullivan, who said: “It’s a marvelous gift for me what I can do for a Third World country, and I can make a difference in people’s lives.”
Dr. Sullivan and his wife Sue performed l00 surgeries in two weeks in January last year. He observed that “outside the US, cataracts are the leading cause of blindness.” In the San Fabian clinic alone, he said, “more than l,000 surgeries are performed by volunteer surgeons on people who could never afford surgery on their own.”
‘No one would be blind if they had money,” Sullivan said. The Quest reports that volunteers are expected to foot airfare expenses but receivce lodging and mneals The equipment at the clinic is mostly donated but volunteers make use of their own supplies, says Sue, Sullivan’s wife.
About 10 to l2 surgeries are performed daily on patients of all ages, including those as young as 25.
Normally, funds for the clinic are provided by Stougton, WI Rotary Club and District 27 D1 Wisconsin Lions Club.
It was learned that Dr. Jan Domalanta after completing a residency in Ophthalmology 4 years ago at the UST, volunteered to spend two weeks at the FREEC to handle cataract and blind patients. He now plans to put up a clinic in his home province in Quirino province because there are no known ophthalmologists there and neigboring provinces.
Dr. Domalanta lacks funds to buy eye apparatuses, so the FREEC plans to provide him a used slit lamp and a surgical microscope.
For the length of time that he has devoted to his “mission,” Dr. de Venecia has developed a saintly reputation for being an eye or vision restorer or “light giver,”
Pointing to the handsome clinic in San Fabian town built by the FREEC, Dr. De Venecia gives the impression that the arena for service continues to grow but there are always good souls who unfailingly fill the need.
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We received from our e-mail the following letter from the US by Noel Verzosa:
Dear Jun,
People are too quick to make a hero out of Lozada. They forget that before this man was thrust into the spotlight, he was up to his eyeballs in graft like the rest of them. Lozada is not a whistleblower in the true sense of the word. A whistleblower is motivated by a compelling sense of moral outrage. The only reason Lozada is singing like a canary is because his take in the aborted broadband deal would have been a measly P50,000. He has admitted to accepting bribes. He lives in a very expensive house, his daughters go to private schools, he has a mistress, and he vacations abroad. All these on a government functionary’s salary. Give me a break! Now he is on the lecture circuit getting paid with handsome honorariums. I do not have any compassion of him and his ilk – servants of the people lining their pockets with dirty money. The sycophants around him have inflated his ego. I have no doubt that he will win should he run for public office. God have mercy on the Philippines.
Cheers! Every week I look forward to the Punch. More power to you!
Noel Erfe Verzosa
Las Vegas, Nevada
(Readers may reach columnist at junmv@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/think-about-it/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)
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