My brother's dream

Last week’s column regarding “My brother’s hope” elicited several kind emails and text messages from our readers. This made me realize that even if my brother, Doc Martin, did not win a Senate seat, he (or more accurately, his ideals and ideas) seemed to have won the hearts of many Filipinos. If for that reason alone, then his quixotic run was well worth it. One reader, Mark Luistro of California, asked why I did not feature the prequel (“entitled “On my way home”) to his “Maraming Salamat” posting which eloquently laid out the reasons why he was running as this may have gained a few more votes for him. To be honest, I did not feel it was right for me to use this column to endorse a relative. Yes, the management of this paper has given carte blanche authority to its columnists on what they can write about, and yet while it may have been “legal” for me to do it, I thought it was “improper” for me to do so. However, now that the Senatorial elections are over, I wish to share what he originally wrote. For those who read last week’s column, this would be like a case of watching Godfather part II before Godfather part I. Well, here it goes:

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My blog readers know who I am – a 47-year-old Filipino physician who, after studying, training and running a successful medical practice for almost 20 years in the US has now returned to his country. I am, and proud to be, a Balikbayan.

Friends have asked: Why?

“You have a wonderful life in America,” they say. “You were featured on US national television as an outstanding Asian. You’re at the top of your profession. Why become a Dr. Balikbayan?”

In my mind I have asked myself the same question. The answer is difficult to explain, and for some, more difficult to understand.

No Filipino in or out of the country is unaware of the stark reality that confronts all of us. At this time the Philippines has a higher poverty level than most countries on earth. Our government is considered to be more corrupt than even the most chaotic African nations.

But as a physician what pains me most deeply is the terrible fact that more and more Filipinos are dying for no other reason than that they lack medical care. By the thousands, mothers die at childbirth. Children die of curable infectious diseases. People are ill and they have no one to turn to.

I cannot accept this. I must do something. I owe it to myself, to my vocation as physician, and to my fellow Filipinos. This is why I left America and am now Dr. Balikbayan.

Recently I joined the brave and honorable cause of Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas whose aim is not only to reform but to transform the Philippines. To this I have committed myself.

I am not a politician nor do I intend ever to be one. I am an experienced physician trained to help and save lives. But rather than treat individual patients by the handful, I believe I can be more useful, do more good by extending medical care to millions of Filipinos who have neither the knowledge nor the means to fight disease and prolong life.

I realize I cannot do this alone. Neither can Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas. All our leaders from Lapulapu with his band of Cebuano warriors to Cory Aquino with her heroes at Edsa needed the full hearted, unsparing involvement of men and women willing to seek, struggle, and if necessary, sacrifice to attain the fulfillment of a common aspiration.

I shall do my part, play a role, perhaps a small one, in the sweeping movement that calls all Filipinos at home and abroad together, growing in strength and number, gaining momentum to turn itself into the transformative power that will change our country and generations of our countrymen.

So I move on, move forward, move toward a horizon bright with the promise of the good years to come for all Filipinos across space and time.

Dr. Balikbayan is home.

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Step in the right direction: In the September 26, 2009 column, I had raised the query of former MAP president Evelyn Singson on why Filipinos who obtain a legal degree abroad are not allowed to sit for the Philippine bar examinations. My answer to her was I did not know the answer but suggested that she write to the Supreme Court about it as I did not agree with the rule as well. In February of this year, the high court heard her plea and that of many others who are similarly situated when it amended Sections 5 and 6 of Rule 138 of the Rules of Court that now allows a Filipino graduate of an accredited foreign law school and who completes all the fourth year subjects in a duly recognized Philippine law school to take the bar examinations and become a bona fide member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. This I believe is a step in the right direction and for which our Supreme Court deserves one centavo. But the latter can earn another centavo if it further liberalizes the rule by allowing foreigners to take the Philippine bar as well in the same way that many Filipinos are allowed to sit for the bar in other countries and practice in other jurisdictions.

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“After the chess game, the King

and the pawn go back to the same box.”

 - Italian proverb

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