PCSO, UP come to the aid of UPMin prof’s daughter

UP Newsletter Volume xxvii Number 09 2006-09-01
by Jo. Florendo B. Lontoc

UP Mindanao (UPMin) professor Emma Ruth Valdez Bayogan and her husband Jonathan, a school administrator of Davao Oriental State College of Science and Technology, did not expect that UP would be instrumental in getting government support for their child’s treatment for leukemia.

The young Bayogan had everything going for her. The loving and lively 10-year-old, the youngest of four siblings, was a consistent honor student. Then she was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, the kind of leukemia that normally afflicts adults. She began undergoing intensive chemotherapy sessions as early as May this year but her doctors made it clear that the child’s real hope lay more in a bone marrow transplantation.

Luckily, her older brother was a perfect match. Money was the only obstacle to the treatment. The stop-gap measures against their daughter’s illness had already caused her to lose her hair and depleted the family’s finances. There was no way the family could afford the transplantation which would cost two to three million pesos. As government employees, the parents made just enough for their daily needs.

They first sought the help of friends and colleagues through e-groups. Then, as early as July, they sought the help of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) in Davao City, even getting a series of endorsements from congressmen and a politician for their request for assistance. The couple did not know that, having gone the roundabout way, the major breakthrough in their quest for support would come from the very top ranks of PCSO itself upon the endorsement of the UP President, whose help the couple did not directly seek.

The couple said that, based on what they gathered from email messages, their e-mail somehow found its way to an e-group in the United States, where Cesar Torres, a former UP professor, found it imperative to bring the matter up to UP President Emerlinda R. Roman. President Roman then called on UPMin Chancellor Ricardo de Ungria to brainstorm on what UP could do to help. She thought that the University could help the Bayogans get assistance from the PCSO.

Chancellor de Ungria then had the Bayogan couple complete another set of the PCSO requirements, turned them over to President Roman, who then wrote an endorsement letter to accompany the Bayogans’ request for assistance. She had the documents submitted to the PCSO immediately, then followed them up by phone. This was late August.At the PCSO, one of the directors happened to be Honorable Teresita Gonzales, daughter of UP Regent Nelia Gonzales.

She took the UP request, and knowing that time was of the essence in this case, presented it at once to the rest of the directors of the PCSO. According to her, the PCSO normally required only a letter of request, an original medical abstract of the patient indicating the doctor’s license number, and estimated costs of the operation or an original of the medical prescription. But financial assistance for such a large amount needed Board approval. Director Gonzales made the presentation to the Board on September 6, only a week after President Roman’s endorsement.

In UPMin, the student group Koro Kantahanay was, on that date, about to start a benefit concert for the young Bayogan. (Earlier, Chancellor de Ungria had written a memo calling for a fund drive for the girl, the UPMin College of Science and Math students had had a fun run fund drive, and the UP Horticultural Society had also had their own fund drive.) While waiting for the choir performance, Prof. Bayogan received a personal call from President Roman herself who gave her the good news: the PCSO Board had just approved their request for help.

On September 9, the Bayogans and their daughter flew to Manila, where the only three hospitals that perform the bone marrow procedure are located. On September 13, they met the directors of PCSO, led by Director Teresita Gonzales and Chairman Sergio Valencia, at the PCSO headquarters in Quezon City. The Bayogans would be given a guarantee that provided the Bayogans enough to rest from fund-raising for a while to spend more time with their daughter.