By Atty. Antonio P. Pekas
It was another rare blue moon. I received the text message from the Philippine Information Agency about a press conference on mental health by officers of the Philippine Mental Health Association- Cordillera, at their office near the psychiatric section of the Baguio General Hospital. It was a rare blue moon that I was free for that event. Often times I had a court thing going when I received invitations from the PIA for such events. I rued the times when they invited me for DOH press cons the past months but there was just nothing I could do to squeeze in the events.
So I went to the mental health press con. As I was about to go, the two people at the office said that I really had to attend that. Meaning, I had mental health issues to deal with. Amen.
|When I got to the venue, I was surprised to see the panelists were not strangers. I was on comfortable ground. There was retired Judge Francis Buliyat Sr., the chapter chairman and Atty. Edilberto Tenefrancia, a board member, who still appeared, thought and moved like he were a spring chicken.
Then there were the ladies. The program was mainly emceed by PIA Regional Director Helen Tibaldo while the lady panelists were vice chair Nonette C. Bennett, Dr. Noemi Angeline Jularbal, and Christine Gina Camsol—the center’s manager.
Except for Gina, all of these people were parts of my life. You could say that Director Helen is the boss or the darling of the media. Nonette was with us a long time ago. Noemi was once my witness in court to prove the mental state of a client.
I was of course the oldest among the media people so, as they always graciously do, they gave me the floor first. This time, however, it was not because I was the eldest, but because I was the craziest.
My first question was why did the lady panelists still looked young, including of course, Dir. Helen, when me and my age-mates are already wrinkles all over? Of couse, I knew the answer but did not say it as I it would have taken too long. In college, I learned in psychology that women usually look younger and live longer because they have so many ways to cope with stress or their frustrations in life. They would cry just by themselves or on somebody else’s shoulder and they get relieved somehow. Or sometimes they vent these out through “tsismis” and they also get relieved.
On the other hand, the ego of men gets in the way from venting things out. Everything is “bottled” inside until it bursts in the form of violence or other manifestations of “craziness” like committing suicide. Or they end up taking drugs or other addictive substances. Others become criminals.
Another comment I made was that the police departments should be one of the main clients of the association. I said that policemen deal with crimes and criminals every day and that there is a brainwashing effect of this, such that many policemen become criminals themselves.
The panelists were actually saying the same thing in different ways and that it was comforting that indeed the police is a main client of theirs.
Then I said, as a joke, “You should also have programs for us men to be able to understand women.” They all laughed for the point was that women are crazy sometimes. The panelists’ reaction was, of course, spot on. Everybody, including men, have health issues. I agree. In other words, we are all crazy in a way.
I later went back to the floor to give my 5-cents worth on coping. I related that I cope with all the pressures of life by meditating everyday. That there are many forms of meditation. I do it the Ananda Marga yoga way but there are Christian methods also. While I did not say this there, meditation is like a long deep prayer.
Gina then commented that it is a good way to maintain mental health. So if you do deep and long prayers regularly, like 15 to 20 minutes, you should be OK.
A shocking revelation was that from former Judge Buliyat Sr. on the number marriage annulment cases he decided when he was a judge. Remember that the only ground here for the annulment of marriage is psychological incapacity to perform the obligations of a married life. That is a mental health issue. On the number of marriage he performed, he said that, as he could recall, he married about 700 couples before he retired. And he annulled more than a thousand marriages.
Another worthy revelation from Atty. Tenefrancia was that the local chapter of the Philippine Mental Health Association has been existing since 60 years ago. He the said that mental issues have been there since Adam and Eve.** (More next week on the chapter’s programs.)
