Archives: Opinions

By Tedler D. Depaynos, MD It was just after midnight when the 34 years old female patient from La Trinidad was brought to the ER because of severe abdominal pain. After a brief work-up, the diagnosis of a stone in the right kidney was confirmed. It reminded us of a similar case we encountered 2 months earlier. Both were with […]

By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas It was a bright summer day when I went out five days ago. I was in town just before 8:00 a.m. As usual I was stopped at the checkpoint along Marcos Highway, the main entry from Metro Manila as Kennon Road is closed. The policemen there were courteous and let me go once I identified […]

By Anthony A. Araos There are psychological challenges faced after a decision has been reached on where to stay during this so-called “community quarantine” period. Be it in Quezon City or Pasay City in Metro Manila (where the “community quarantine” was initially enforced) or in Gerona, Tarlac, Mangaldan, Pangasinan, Baguio City or Tinoc, Ifugao and many other towns and cities […]

By Estanislao Albano, Jr. NOTE: The reports that the Israeli scientists are closing in on developing a vaccine against the COVID-19 virus which circulated a few days ago set me to thinking that if indeed, they will succeed in the endeavour, it will not be the first time their scientists have come up with something immensely beneficial to humanity. By […]

By Tedler D. Depaynos, MD The 74 years old male patient lives near a dam where their main livelihood is raising fish called “tilapia”. For the past few months, he has been experiencing “hyperacidity” after eating as described by his daughter. She bought him “Maalox” from time to time when she goes to the city to sell some of their […]

By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas The economy is not like a bus that just did a stopover so its passengers can get to the CR or to have lunch in a restaurant. After that the bus would just resume its journey. The backbone of our economy are the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that take care of 70% of […]

By Anthony A. Araos At the Alfonso Lista coronavirus (COVID-19) disease Task Force meeting, MDRRMO officer Lolina Garcia cited the importance of social media in the information education campaign (IEC) in the effort to contain the problem in this part of the province. She’s right. However, most of Alfonso Lista’s folks don’t have laptops or computers. Most of them are […]

By Penelope A. Domogo, MD We are on lockdown, globally. It took an invisible thing to control the world- covid-19. But, actually, what controlled us and what is controlling us is FEAR. Fear is an emotion, a powerful one, meant for our survival. In general, it is a feeling of threat to our lives, to our health or to our […]

By Estanislao Albano, Jr. More than two weeks after they tripped over each other trying to assure the country that the literacy problem in Bicol is not really as bad as reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer in its story “70,000 Bicol pupils can’t read – DepEd,” (February 17, 2020) Department of Education (DepEd) officials still have to comment on […]

By Tedler D. Depaynos, MD The low profile middle aged lawyer was becoming frustrated when he can no longer control his “withdrawal symptoms” with the “shots” he takes every morning especially when he appears in court. Actually he started experiencing his uncontrollable tremors which usually appear in the morning when he had greatly reduced his Fundador intake. He tried doubling […]