A marriage of love and service

MANILA, Philippines – Beautiful things happen to people who do good to others. 

Take the case of Romelei Camiling, a doctor now serving in Agutaya, Palawan. Camiling is part of the first batch of the Bagong Doktor Para sa Bayan, an initiative of the First Gentleman Foundation Inc. 

When Camiling, 26, was about to leave for her two-year duty as barrio doctor in Agutaya, she found out her mother had cancer. It was a very difficult decision, but she found the strength to entrust her mother to her loved ones and to God, and headed out to the six islands of Agutaya to serve the 9,000 people of the municipality.

Day and night, in between attending to patients, she would think of her mother and pray to God to heal her, too. God heard her pleas, and her mother was miraculously healed without having to undergo chemotherapy. 

That beautiful news was coupled with even more good news – Camiling’s boyfriend of almost six years, Arvin Jay Alfonso, 25, an industrial engineer, proposed to her last March.  

The couple met in UP Diliman when Camiling was a molecular biology and biotechnology student while Alfonso was a sophomore at the College of Engineering.   

“When the community learned that I was getting married to Arvin on April 5, they were very excited,” recalls Camiling. Some in the community were concerned that they would lose their beloved doctor, the one and only in the community, but Camiling assured them that she wouldn’t leave them.

The people of Agutaya convinced the couple to have their wedding on the island, and the whole community mobilized to make it a memorable affair. 

Camiling’s staff from the regional health unit cleaned up the beachfront the day before the wedding. They even transported chairs from the town proper and brought mats for the reception area. A kagawad from one of the barangays made the wedding arch as well as the torches that illuminated the beach when the sun set.

“My staff surprised me by pitching in their resources to buy chicken as well as preparing pancit to add to what my husband and I had planned to include for the food for our wedding. Some of my staff were cooking until 11 p.m. the night before using gaseras (kerosene lamps) as their only light because at that time, Agutaya’s electric power supply was cut due to a blown generator,” Camiling says.

“Our wedding was scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. At 3 p.m., Arvin and I were still preparing our main dish – carbonara. The ingredients came all the way from Iloilo where Arvin bought the ingredients with my relatives residing there,” she adds.

“We also had maja and a large banana cake to serve as our ‘wedding cake.’ These were prepared by one of the locals in the community,” says Alfonso. 

Camiling adds, “A friend from Cuyo whom we have come to consider as our aunt sponsored the fruit salad, which Arvin transported from Cuyo to Agutaya via pumpboat. All the ingredients where packed in a big ice chest. She also provided the sheets for the tables in our reception area.” 

A dressmaker in the town of Cuyo – four hours by pumpboat from Agutaya – who was known for making beautiful gowns made Camiling’s traje de boda.

The young couple is happy with their set-up of seeing each other every two months either in mainland Palawan or in Metro Manila where Alfonso is based.

Camiling notes that hypertension is the common ailment of the people in Agutaya, but the 50 barangay health workers have no blood pressure (BP) apparatus to monitor the BP of townsfolk, and the nearest drug store is in Cuyo, a good four hours away by pumpboat. 

The town’s health center needs transportation to move patients, especially those from the nearby islands within the municipality’s jurisdiction. She suggested that outside funding to buy a tricycle and a pump boat would be a big help. Camiling recalls one incident when some of the barangay officials bodily carried a patient wrapped in a banig (mat) to the health center because there was no means of transportation available.

“What Lei and I have seen and experienced through their heartwarming love and support during our wedding was the big potential of this community to unite together and radiate the bayanihan spirit we Filipinos have been known for throughout our history as a nation. Despite the scarce resources, the Agutaynens have adjusted and adopted well with what they have within their reach,” Alfonso says. 

“How much more will these simple and caring people of Agutaya be able to do if they’d only be given the chance, the opportunity and the resources that would empower them,” Camiling notes. – Büm Tenorio