What caused his dizziness?

***

How do I know that, not being a doctor, or even a herbolaria? It’s because, as the quip goes, “I’ve been there, done that”. I used to suffer from it regularly, and in my case, it often led to severe migraine headaches and even partial blindness. Luckily, I outgrew it after about ten years. In the case of defense lawyer Cuevas, has he pinpointed the cause of dizziness already? Has it ever occurred to him that he could have prevented it by covering his ears while someone was lecturing the other lawyers? One could get dizzy in such a situation, you know.

***

When he returned to the panel yesterday, he asked for time from the presiding officer, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile, to apologize to the court for his absences, but Enrile brushed it off saying there was no need to apologize. Nonetheless, Cuevas went on to explain his absence. I think it was more for the benefit of his fellow defense lawyers who admitted that they seemed lost without him. And now that he is back, let the show go on.

***

Meanwhile, I was glad to know that Senate President Enrile would not give in to the request of the defense panel to call the writers of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism because they wanted them to talk about their investigations into the statements of assets, liabilities and networth of other politicians, particularly the members of Congress. Obviously, it is another delaying tactic, because, how could the report that some officials also did not completely report their assets affect the case of CJ Corona? He is the one being accused of it right now. Maybe they can also charge the others, but that should be another story, another case.

***

In Cotabato City, a 12-year-old child died after reportedly swallowing a plastic balloon. Now officials of the school, the University of Notre Dame, are in trouble because the parents of the child are blaming them for negligence, since it happened within the institution. But the parents immediately buried the child, and would not allow an autopsy, so it has not actually been confirmed that a plastic balloon was the culprit.

***

There is also another hazard for young children who are sometimes left to their own devices at home while their folks are busy doing other things. This is the empty plastic bag that a little child may playfully put over his or her head. There have been cases of child suffocation this way, because sometimes, the child breathes the plastic into his nostrils and this worsens when he gets frantic and tries to take it off. So be sure to keep away such items from the reach of the little ones, because they could be deadly.

***

Just as deadly to the youth is the report that, in the Philippines, two out of five young people between the ages of 13 and 15, are already smoking cigarets. This was confirmed by the Global Youth Tobacco surveys held in the country. The findings also showed that the Philippines has one of the highest incidence of young smokers in the world. As we know, smoking is bad enough for adults as it could lead to serious illness, or destroy their resistance to some ailments. In the young ones, it could act somewhat like the horrible HIV, because it could weaken their immune system, and even expose them to lung cancer.

***

When my father, who was born a blue baby, was in his later years, his bum heart begin to act up, but thanks to our dear doctor, the late heart specialist, Antonio Corral, he survived several serious heart attacks and lived until his late seventies. His doctor attributed his very good response to medication to the fact that he never smoked, drank alcoholic liquor, or abused his diet. Dr. Corral said this was because his system was “clean” with no nicotine, alcohol or cholesterol that could have affected the effectivity of his medicines.*

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