Eye Opener
By Rodolfo Gumabong

Dr. Annabelle De Guzman champions cause of cancer patients

Dr. Annabelle Pabiona De Guzman, president of Hospice and Family Care Foundation, Inc., is one family physician who has a heart and love for terminally ill cancer patients particularly those with six months to live. Cancer, as clinicians, doctors and patients will reveal, is a dreaded word especially among those who receive it as a diagnosis of their medical ailment. It not only saps physicians and clinicians of energy and vitality, physical and emotional strength, but by the time these medical practitioners have come to terms with medical diagnosis—after making rounds with myriads of doctors and clinicians, it shall have already weakened these medical practitioners with their financial resources. That's the reason why when Dr. Annabelle De Guzman was given a chance to finish her Post Graduate Certificate in Masters in Medical Education at the University of Surrey London, England, she was lucky to visit and observe Hospice as a form of care in London. She was delighted to see how terminally ill cancer patients were housed in small edifices surrounded by green plants, lush foliage, water pools and the patients were cared and attended to by humane understanding medical staff and volunteers. How the ever-smiling and loving lady family physician wish that Filipino patients suffering from terminal cancer would receive equally humane treatment and care as their counterpart in London Hospice Care Center.

When high government lady sisters in the Bureau of Customs, and Ninoy Aquino International Airport amassed millions of pesos, a dozen highly developed subdivisions, expensive cars, speed boat, mansions and unexplained millions of bank deposits, poor patients in hospitals and clinics suffer because of lack of medicines and financial assistance. Government finances in the form of people's taxes are stolen by these ungodly government officials, how can the nation finance insular hospitals and clinics to help relieve the agony and suffering of the Filipino people particularly the sick?

Why do government officials steal the money which do not belong to them? Are they not aware that there is God? Many of these corrupt government officials and employees take daily communion in their respective Catholic parishes and why are their hearts full of evil?

The program of Hospice Care under the leadership of Dr. Annabelle Pabiona De Guzman is not to be taken lightly. Jesus Christ said in Matthew 25:40: “Inasmuch as you have done these unto the least of my brethren, you have done these unto Me.” Annabelle and her associates and workers in the Hospice Care Center in Mandurriao, Iloilo City, will no doubt have crowns of glory in heaven. While the thieves, robbers and dishonest government officials in the government will surely find their way to the lake of fire and not their millions of stolen money can buy their way to heaven.

Kudos to Dr. Annabelle Pabiona De Guzman, chairman wife of Dr. Christopher Rey De Guzman, himself a disciple of the Lord in helping the poor and the afflicted. Praise the Lord!