May 25, 2006
 
 
Archbishop Angel N. Lagdameo
Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines
Manila
 
 
To my most Revered Bishop Lagdameo,
  
Please forgive my audacity for writing to you about something that may seem too inconsequential in the face of the more pressing problems that surround you everyday.  But I need to reach out to everybody, hoping somebody would hear me.  I see you in the news and I remember you were our Bishop here in Dumaguete City once.  You are strong in your convictions and you are not afraid to speak out.  So I come to you, praying you will listen to me and take up my cause.
 
I hope that in seeing this letter from a housewife in Dumaguete, a city that was once your home, you will spare me a moment of your precious time to read what I need to tell to you.
 
I am Olga Lucia A. Uy, a housewife and mother of one 6-year old girl.  My husband and I desire to have another child, but due to my infertility problem, I failed to conceive despite repeated fertility treatments.  But God works in mysterious ways.  On April 26, 2006, I discovered that I was about six weeks pregnant!  Can you imagine our joy?  I saw that as an affirmation of God’s ever-loving presence in our lives.  But I lost my baby on May 9, 2006 through miscarriage.  I was devastated Father.  But I submitted to God’s will.  I trusted in His Divine Wisdom and was preparing to let go and start healing from my grief. 
 
As part of my closure, I longed to know what could have happened why my baby died.  I was informed it must have been a blighted pregnancy from the start and I wanted medical confirmation for that.  I went through the process of questioning myself, if somehow, I had been responsible for the loss of my much prayed-for child.
 
So on that same morning, I took my dead child to Silliman University Medical Center for biopsy.  I handed my little one to a medical technician.  After he received the so-called “specimen”, he jokingly handed it to a co-employee and said to him: “O, ihi-i ni.” (“Here, urinate on this.”)   
 
That single event magnified my pain a thousandfold.  On a personal level, I was devastated, to say the least.
 
On a spiritual level, I was shocked.  At that moment, I realized how far gone MOST of us, God’s people, seemed to have drifted away from our Creator.  And what really scared me was the realization that seemingly, we do not even realize what is happening to us.
 
What happened may have been a small isolated event.  But on the other hand, it could be reflective of what has happened your flock, we your people Father, how we seemed to have lost our awe and amazement over God's power to grant the miracle of life.  We see this almost everyday in the news Father, about fetuses dumped together like garbage in a barrel, or burned instead of being given a proper burial as befitting God’s creation.  The loss of our love and respect for the Lord Almighty is reflected by the loss of our respect for all of His CREATIONS, great or small, whatever its form may be. 
 
And maybe, this was what happened to that medtech.  To him, my baby was only “specimen”, a mass of dead “tissue”.  It never occurred to him that “specimen” was a manifestation of God’s awesome power.
 
Because of this painful experience, I personally undertook an advocacy, a small one Father, to urge the leadership of Silliman University Medical Center Foundation, Inc. (SUMCFI) to publicly commit that they would implement a true, intensive and sustained VALUES FORMATION PROGRAM among their doctors and other employees.  I am hoping that through this program, they will reawaken MOST of their people to what is truly essential:
 
·                     that in their profession, their mission is not only to heal the human body, but also to soothe the battered soul of those who come to them.
 
I hope that through this, their own people will be properly guided along appropriate conduct as they deal with their patients and their companions, who are HUMAN BEINGS, not mere “cases” for them to attend to. 
 
I also hope that through this program, they will likewise be guided about the giving of appropriate regard for the sensitivities of the people they deal with.
 
·                     but more importantly, I am hoping that through my advocacy, their people will be reminded that there is a God above whom we should love and honor in every little thing that we do.
 
I am fighting a battle against an institution and my puny cries remained unheard.  But I will continue because I will find my closure over the loss of my little child only when I can see that something good has come out from my pain, a GOOD that will benefit as many people as possible.
 
Please help me my Father.  Please lend me your strength and your conviction.  Please lend me the weight of your goodness and every good thing that you stand for.  Please show me Bishop Lagdameo taking on the fight of a small housewife because I cannot do this all by myself.
 
I have been blessed by God with people here in Dumaguete City who have heard and who have listened.  Among them is our own Msgr. Gamaliel Tulabing, who heard my pleas for help.  Father Wilfredo Quijano of the Redemptorist Community also heard me, and each in their own way, have helped me tremendously.
 
Father, at the risk of abusing your generosity, please allow me to give you copies of various other letters that I have written.  I feel the need to give them to you so you will be able to understand me more fully.  All my thoughts, everything I have and everything that I am, you will find in those letters.  Please Father, if you have the time, please look into my heart.
 
Thank you so much.  May God be with you always as You do His Holy Work.