6 leap year babies born in government hospital

MANILA, Philippines - Cherryn Jeal Cabuhat was not thrilled with the idea of giving birth to her eldest child on Feb. 29.

“My due date is actually Feb. 28 so I was somehow worried that she will be a butt of jokes when she grows up in case she is born on Feb. 29,” she said in Filipino. The joke is that people born on Feb. 29 are “kulang-kulang” (dimwit).

The 23-year-old from Caloocan City was among the six mothers who gave birth at the government-run Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center in Manila yesterday.

All of them preferred their children to celebrate their birthdays on March 1 rather than Feb. 29.

However, Cristel Mangalindan, 17, said there is no truth to that joke.

“It’s the first time that I heard that,” she said. “But I know it is not true.”

The online dictionary Farlex defines leap year as a “year in the Gregorian calendar having 366 days, with the extra day, Feb. 29, intercalated to compensate for the quarter-day difference between an ordinary year and the astronomical year.”

A leap year happens once every four years.

Psychiatrist Ivanhoe Escartin, National Center for Health Promotion director, said the joke has no scientific basis.

“It has never been established,” he said. “Maybe because leap year is not usual and for some, something that is not usual is not normal. Maybe that’s how it started.”

He has been subjected to the joke, although he was born on Feb. 28, not on Feb. 29, Escartin said.

Constancia Suerte Felipe-Avendo, 47, of Paombong, Bulacan, said the joke is unfounded.

Her eldest son Mike Angelo was born on Feb. 29, 1988, and if the leap year is to be considered, he is only six years old this year.

“That is just a joke,” she said. 

“There is nothing unusual with my son Miggie compared to his five other siblings. We just have a good about that.”