Save a life in every barrio

Title

Creator

Cuenca, AL

Language

English

Year

1969

Subject

Medicaid beneficiaries

Welfare recipients

Public welfare

Social services

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

PALLAHAWAN ARADAIN, a Muslim boy with a serious eye ailment was saved from blindness by the First Lady. He is shown at right being welcomed in Malacaiiang by President and Mrs. Marcos. MELETA LOYOLA, a 14-yearold girl from Ragay, Camarines Sur, once lived in fear of the future. Her left eye, afflicted for so~etime, had gone completely blind. Worse, it had bulged so big her left cheek was almost covered. Just when she was about to lose all hope of seeing again, her case was brought to the attention of the First Lady, Mrs. Imelda R, Marcos. Mrs. Marcos- was so touched by poor Meleta's plight 'She arranged for immediate surgery at the Philippine General Hospital. That was months ago. Meleta now lives the normal life of a teenager, vibrant and full of hope. Another teenager, 14-year-old Pilgansa Pandanca, broke a leg while playing with friends in Jolo. His leg was amputated and he resigned himself to a life on crutches. Then, by a fortunate coincidence, Mrs. Marcos spotted him in a crowd that met her in one of her visits to Jolo. She took pity on the boy and through her representation to the National Orthopedic Hospital, he was outfitted with a wooden leg. Pilgansa now moves about like any ordinary boy, his morbid fear of having to appear like the cripple that he is with crutches somewhat assuaged if not erased. all over the country-blind young people, cripples, orphans, homeless old people. All of them have been helped through the "Save a Life in Every Barrio" project of Mrs. Marcos. Mrs. Marcos's social welfare projects began when her husband assumed the presidency. No sooner had she settled herself in SAVE A LIFE IN EVERY BARRIO By AL CUENCA Malaeafiang than she started projects such as the "Share for Progress" (home garden movement), a nation-wide beautification campaign, the establishment of recePtion and study centers for children, of treatment centers for emotionally disturbed children, of orphanages and youth centers, of community centers, and of homes The cases of Meleta and Pilgansa are only two instances. Mrs. Marcos has helped several others A cripple among well-wi~hers of the First Couple. 6 PHILIPPINE MAGAZINE, MARCH 15, 1969 A little patient of the "Save a Life" project. For needy, senior citizens. "Save a Life in Every Barrio" was a result of several requests for aid coming from rural folk. It was only in 1967, though, after helping two Muslim young men (a blind and a cripple) that she decided to make it as a continuing and :nation-wide project. From a modest beginning it now involves several institutions and individuals in both the public and private sectors. The welfare projects of Mrs. ~farcos are so varied that to make them more wieldy and responsive they had to be unified into one single coordinated program - the Integrated Social Welfare Program. The first of its kind in the country, it frowns on the usual handouts and doles which were familiar f ea tu res of past welfare movements. The orientation of th.e program. is toward self-help, with emph~s1s on training, guidance and, if necessary, initial financial assistance, to develop a sense of independence on the part of the recipients. .s?me skeptics,. especially the c.r1bcs of t'he admmistration would h~e to look at all· these as gimmicks to endear the First Lady to the people. But whether or not this is ~o is beside the point. The fact is that she does help the needy, the afflicted and the poor. PM ' PHILIPPINE MAGAZINE, MARCH 15, 1969 UNIDENTIFIED FLYING/WALKING OBJECTS ~By FRED D. MAN AW U F.O ( uni~en~ified flying ob- d~y when an unidentified object ~ects) s1~tmgs are old ha~ did something that stunned her. m the Umted States. Almost According to Miss Diyan, the creaevery day a Y a~kee !eports that ~ure rose suddenly and offered her he. has seen. a yve1rd obJect .o~ some- its seat! The police assured her thing. This 1s not surpnsmg be- that the unidentified object was cause America teems with weirdos merely a passenger who was tryand strange animals. ing to be a gentleman. The most recent UFO sighting Mrs. Pura Lektyur, a schoolwas described by a Chicago po- teacher, said she was walking on !iceman as a "brilliant white ball her way to school when she came that changed shapes and which across a group of strange beings looked like a harvest moon." If whose activities unnerved her and the reporting party was not a cop, ~ade her rush to the nearest pohe could have probably been hauled hce outpost. After a thorough inin for taking LSD. Nevertheless vestigation, the policemen confirm''harvest moon" is a hallowed ed that strange group was a quiet phrase in America and one must ~unch of students who were not take it as seriously as "Mommy" mterested in demonstrations and and "apple pie." were merely studying their lessons. One Jerry Zool, a police depart- There are many reports of ment di~patcher in Michigan, said h~ppenings !n our country. Last he received a report from eight mght, a neighbor rushed to our persons who had seen a "red and house shouting she never realized plue an~ green flashing object in ~he had been harboring an alien the sky one morning. Of course m her house. It turned out that ~e ?bject could hav<: been a traf- her son wanted to work as a waiter fl~ bght but Zool failed to deter- but .she ~ad warned him against mme whether the reporting par- the idea because what would my ties were high on booze or not. f~iends say?" I assured her that In contrast, reports about UFO his son does belong to a strange ~ig~tings ar~ very rare in the Phil- br~,ed kno~ as ~he "New FilipiII?pmes. This is not because Fili- ~o who ~J!eves m hard work and pmos have poor eyesight or are m the nobility of manual labor. ~ess imaginative than the Amer- Perhaps one of the strangest re1cans (remember :Ambassador ports received so far is about the Blair?). Perhaps it's because we man living in the big house near always have clear skies and one the Pasig who had the guts to decan easily distinguish a m.aya clare his earnings and the income from a C-47. tax he has paid in 1968. I underHowever, there have also been stand he has dared his colleagues reports about unidentified objects to follow his example but no one (not 1?-ecessarily in flight). The has responded so far. !ollowrng are some of these sight- There is also the case of Albert mg: Kuyakoy of Slum Village who is Cornelio Komukoy, 35, of 007 still undergoing treatment for B~nd Street, Makati, Manila, sh?ck. It seems that he went to ~aid he got the scare of his this government office to follow hfe when he saw a uniformed up some papers when he was subyveird-looking creature walking jected to one of the strangest exm his neighborhood and talking to periences in his life by one unident~e people. He said it was the first tified sitting object. It turned out t!me he saw su~h a creature in his that a clerk had been very cour!1fe. /i. check .d1sclos~d that the un- teous and polite to Kuyakoy, and 1~enbf1ed flymg obJect was a po- th~ e~fect, according to the psyhceman on foot patrol, the first chiatr1st, has terribly affected the cop to pound the beat on foot in patient's psychological balance. that. area.. . If you have seen or heard anyM1ss Allee D1y~n, 21, of 123 Bo- thing strange lately, why not write tac~a, Pas~y City, reported an about it and send it to The Pltileer1e exper1en~e to the police .re- ippine Magazine? The PM wet~ently. She said she was standmg comes such contributions and that m an overcrowded bus the other again is a weird thing to do. FM 7

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