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Bacolod City, PhilippinesMonday, December 10, 2012
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From the Center
with Rolly Espina
OPINIONS

The miracle of
Pablo’s visit

Rolly Espina

Many thought that super typhoon Pablo skirted Bacolod and its neighboring areas just due to a coincidence of nature or just a natural phenomenon.

Not so, insists, Moises de la Cruz, performance officer of Mayor Evelio Leonardia.

Moises insists that he and Vice Mayor Jude Thaddues Sayson saw the “miracle” that Pablo was with their own eyes.

This was due to the fact that the two officials were looking at the super typhoon’s route as monitored by the giant satellite screen at the Bacolod Government Center.

“We saw first the circular motion of the typhoon as it moved toward the Mindanao area then it hit Surigao,” he said.

“Then, we saw it going toward the Visayas. The funny thing, we saw a tail of the circular mound detach itself from the main. That was rather unnatural. That means that a portion of the storm was going its separate way,” he added.

As the super typhoon touched Negros Oriental, that tail of the typhoon suddenly went up and jumped over Dumaguete and twisted southward to southern Negros Occidental instead of going straight to Bago and Bacolod.

“We could only attribute the minor damage to Hinobaan and other portions of Southern Negros to that strange behavior of the tail-twister which suddenly veered from its previous course toward Bago and Bacolod to the South”, said Moises de Cruz.

Moises, incidentally, is a religious person. And he insists that he was given by God a chance to see a miracle in the making.

“What else could I do but thank the Lord for having spared us the anticipated damaging violence of the super typhoon Pablo. I saw it with my own eyes and can only thank God for having protected us from the harm that could have happened had that twister hit Bago and Bacolod as originally forecasted, was how Moises described his reaction.

That was exactly what had happened to me two weeks ago when I found myself confined at a hospital after suffering a massive drop in my blood pressure plus dehydration.

For two weeks prior to my hospitalization, I was frantically trying to look for my maintenance medicine for my Parkinson’s. We tried to look for it in almost all drug stores of the city. And so also with the substitute drug. But none were available.

One day, I tried to walk from my bed. But instead, I fell flat on my face on the floor and had to be helped up by my houseboy and others.

I was rushed to the hospital for treatment. My blood pressure had gone down to go over 70. And sometimes, dipping down to 60.

The physicians were alarmed and advised my hospital stay for treatment initially of dehydration.

And, so I stayed in my hospital bed, still denied my medicine as its was not available in any drug store or hospital pharmacy.

Later, I recovered consciousness and discovered that I had lost my yen for cigarets.

Just like I never had tasted cigarette my entire life. I did not even crave for just the smell of a smoke.

Now, I started smoking when I was in Grade IV. This was during the Japanese Occupation of Fabrica of Sagay City.

Our small group of cigar smoking boys used to take in Akibono and other Japanese brands. When there was none available, we smoked the leaves of local trees and wrapped them in guava leaves.

When the Americans arrived, I shifted to American cigarets – Camel, Lucky Strike, etc. And so I went year after year. I became an inveterate cigar smoker like my late father who was also a chain smoker.

Over the years, my late mother and Grandpa kept trying to convince me to give up smoking. So, later with my late wife, Dr. Lourdes L. Espina. I joked with Nene that I had been married to cigar long before we got hitched.

But I really tried to ditch the habit. Later, when she was the director of the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital, I tried it determinedly. But in two weeks, I was flat on my face on my bed.

Later, Dr. Willy Salvador rushed to my bed and advised me to just gradually diminish my intake of cigarets. He pointed out that I was addicted to nicotine and depriving my body of its needed substance could accelerate my demise.

So, over the years since my wife had died and did Willie, I remained the inveterate smoker. As much as three packs a day.

In short, I was the resistant smoker. And nothing able to convince me to give up my cigaret.

But that morning when I woke up from my sleep, I just felt that I was healed. No, nothing extraordinary had happened. There was no withdrawal syndrome, No traumatic episode. Just that. I just lost my yen for the cigaret.

Surprisingly, I could sit with people around me smoking and still feel nothing about it nor crave for a smoke.

“I could not have done it the way it happened. The Lord wanted me to give up smoking. And He did it without hurting me or making me uncomfortable. Just like that. The craving for cigarets jut disappeared like I had not tested cigaret for a long time. Just like that.

So, why not call it a miracle?*


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