Hospital on fire

His name: Marius Ramirez. There are two sayings that describe him. One, he is the archetypal local boy who made good. Two, he is likened to a prophet not appreciated in his own country.

When Marius was a little boy, life was hard for his family living in Anakan, a barrio now called barangay, in Gingoog City. The seventh of eight children of a school teacher earning just enough to feed and send them through high school, he sold seafood and other edibles for spending money. “We were poor,” he recalls, now age 59, but looking smart, fair-skinned and muscular, and wondering aloud why his being poor seems to be taken against him.

After finishing high school in 1977 at Gingoog Institute, he took up civil engineering at the Cebu Institute of Technology. Fate being kind, it took him to Maine, USA, gave him a good-paying job as an engineer, and introduced him to an American girl whom he married, and who with her inheritance from her folks, helped him take up the bachelor of science nursing course at the University of Maine in Oromo. He served as a psychiatric nurse at the Bangore Mental Hospital in Maine. Altogether, he spent 11 years as a mental health nurse, and 20 years in long-term nursing. He found an extremely generous-paying job as a private nurse for a wealthy man, who rewarded him with an income that enabled him to build a house in an ritzy area, and launch humanitarian projects. He is still working as the correction nurse at the Penobscot County Jail sheriff’s office.

All along, Marius dreamed of giving back to Anakan, his place of birth that he thought gave him his life and future. He brought doctors from the US for medical missions in Gingoog. In one mission, 80 patients were given treatment in three days, with ailments consisting mostly of pulmonary and gastroenteritis cases. He was instrumental in securing donations of some equipment to hospitals. Then he had this sky-rocketing dream. 

Slowly, during the past ten years, he had a three-story building built in Anakan meant to be a tertiary hospital that would serve the medical needs not only of the barrio residents, but of surrounding areas too. Gingoog’s public and private hospitals lack facilities, so patients have to go to Cagayan de Oro and Butuan cities for surgery and intensive medical care.

As early this year, Marius’ dream hospital was almost finished, the building, and hospital equipment costing P250 million. The beds, furniture, four machines for cataract procedure, four anesthesia machines, citi scan, ultrasound, and hi-tech lighting for surgical operations were in the building.

There was something lacking, though: cooperation and gratitude of the residents of Anakan for such a noble project intended for their benefit. The barangay council members never showed their appreciation and approval, and took time approving its construction, finally approving it when an incident tore down the edifice. Why this was so, Marius and his siblings could not understand. In the meantime, Marius began purchasing real properties in Odiongan, a nearby barrio, and planned to build on them a fine-dining restaurant, a fishpond, and a river cruise project. Again, the barrio folk did not warm up to his actions. Why? A $64-dollar question, that. Is it envy, a non-acceptance of his having enriched himself, once a poor boy?

This week, Marius was scheduled to arrive and check on the hospital project. But a few days before his arrival, the hospital went up in flames – due to a special child’s playfully lighting up dried leaves in the yard that burned down his family’s wooden house. The fire spread wildly, and ate up in a matter of hours, the multi-million peso hospital building. The residents just stood by, watching the spectacle.

Marius’ sisters called him in his house in Maine. Amazingly, he took the incident in stride, stayed cool, was abnormally normal. He took the matter to the Lord. If it was His will that the hospital be burned, so be it, he said. The Lord must have other plans, Marius thought. He could rebuild the hospital building, making use of the architecturally built foundation and posts – after all he was a civil engineer. Then, too, well-meaning friends would offer financial help.

Marius is not bitter, far from it. He has been the beneficiary of God’s grace and generosity. He said he had prayed to be able to go the US (most Filipinos’ dream), find a job there, and have bright kids. True enough, he and his wife’s two daughters have performed academically well. The older one, Verity, is a cardiologist who is working on a masters in divinity at the Grace Evangelical seminary. The second daughter Demeliza, is marketing director of the YMCA at Bar Harbor in Maine, and is into writing. Marius’ prayer that his sisters could visit the US was also granted. The three, Annie, Dinah and Jazmine were present at the lunch Mario himself had prepared for relatives (including this columnist) and close friends.

The lunch served as a long-delayed memorial service for a brother, Honesto, who passed away on Nov. 20, 2011. It was also a thanksgiving act, as Pastor Yul Yanez of the Gingoog United Church of Christ in the Philippines said in his homily. Thanksgiving for all of us guests and relatives who are alive and recipients of God’s grace, he said. Thanksgiving for Marius’ mission to contribute to the development of his barrio via a much-needed medical institution.

It’s really incredible that the Anakan residents did not welcome nor appreciate Marius’ project. The barangay council, in fact, never called him to discuss the monumental gesture. Is it jealousy that pushed them to become so stubbornly ungrateful? Is that what is called the Filipino’s “crab mentality,” which pulls down once poor people who have become successful?

Perhaps, Marius may have failed to win them over before he started to build the edifice? If this were so, now is the time to heal wounds, cast away pride, mend fences. It would be nice if he and the barangay captain and the kagawads sit down to talk about projects Marius wish to initiate in his birthplace.

If I may, I quote from the Scriptures: “All things work together for good to them who love God and do things according to His purpose.”

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Friday and Saturday evenings, the Gingoog beach front is a beehive of activity due to a hugely successful Music and Food Festival. Hundreds of the city’s residents and those from neighboring barangays have now a regular place to go for fun and eats – thanks to the initiative of the City Tourism Council, headed by Jo Bollozos and with the active participation of about 15 council members. The whole place is filled with diners listening to bands and singers perform on stage.

The weekend fest means good business for the city’s small food entrepreneurs, their offerings consisting mostly of chicken and pork barbecues and grilled tuna, ice cream and siomai. There is order as diners eat at tables in front of the stalls, beer is served in reusable glasses, there’s no clutter on the grounds, and security officers are around, watching out for misbehaving kids. A teenager was apprehended for drunkenness – never mind if he is the son of a city kagawad. 

You are welcome to the city’s entertainment hub.

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