TODAY, I want to talk about help given to those in most need of it. In a Third World country like ours, one need not look far to find people needing such help. We were all brought up to care for one another in our own families, and among our circle of friends. Filipinos have a soft heart and I am in awe of and full of admiration for those who have made it their life mission to engage in humanitarian aid work for the benefit of many.
I am thinking in particular about this television show, “Kapwa Ko Mahal Ko” as this tv program is celebrating its golden anniversary this year. I personally know one of its hosts, Connie Angeles, who has me totally captivated when she relates her encounters with countless people who line up day in and day out to avail of free medical services. Whenever we have lunch together, we quite unconsciously reduce our food intake when we think of many who are hungry
Kapwa Ko Mahal Ko is a public service show of the GMA Network that had its first broadcast on Dec. 1, 1975. Its goal was to tap private donors to help out with the expensive medical and surgical procedures needed by indigent patients who were given the opportunity to go public with their stories in the program. Aside from being a venue for needy patients to air their appeal for help in availing of medical services, Kapwa Ko Mahal Ko awakened the hearts of medical doctors of different specializations, nurses, medical technologists and nutritionists who volunteered their services for free consultations, thus starting the program’s “clinic-on-the-air.” The show is the longest running television program in the country.
‘No one has ever become poor from giving.’– Anne Frank
Its first hosts included Rosal Rosa who, now in her 90s, was a volunteer-member of the Philippine Red Cross Blood Donation Program. An esteemed actress and one of the most beautiful in Philippine cinema, Rosal’s public service work earned for her the 1999 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service. She was bestowed the Order of the Golden Heart with the rank of Grand Cross for a lifetime in public service and for her work with the Red Cross.
Rosa Rosal is best remembered as a vile kontrabida in Tagalog movies. She was so convincing in her roles that people detested her but when she started hosting the program, she became a heroine in the eyes of many. I myself refused to watch the movies where she played the role of the “other woman.”
Because of the success of the show, the producers turned it into the Kapwa Ko Mahal Ko Foundation, where inclusive healthcare is made accessible to all, fostering equity, dignity and well-being.
The other hosts were Orlando “Orly” Mercado and Antonio Talusan. Mercado, who continues to host it to this day, served as senator from 1987-1998 and Secretary of National Defense from 1998 to 2001. He also writes a column for a leading newspaper.
Dr. Antonio Talusan, a renowned nephrologist, was the program’s first medical director.
Through the years, the hosts of Kapwa Ko Mahal Ko have included Nonoy Zuniga, Boots Anson Roa, Rosemarie Gil, Helen Vela, Juan Flavier, Cielito del Mundo, Tina Monzon-Palma, Susan Valdez, Mildred Ortega, Toni Rose Gayda (daughter of Rosa Rosal), Rose Clores, and Gina de Venecia. The current hosts are Mercado and Connie Angeles who joined in 1983. Angeles is also the executive director for health and medical programs of SM Foundation, Inc. (SMFI), which is now a partner of “Kapwa Ko Mahal Ko.”
Connie tells me that because of the success of the program, many have enlisted to partner with them: Mabuhay Deseret Foundation, Philippine Association of Interpreters for Deaf Empowerment (PAIDE), The Optical Shop Incorporated, St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC), Philippine Heart Center, Philippine Children’s Medical Center, East Avenue Medical Center, Makati Medical Center, National Children’s Hospital, Philippine Red Cross, Philippine General Hospital, Quezon City General Hospital (QCGH) Medical Center, and the Lung Center of the Philippines.
Kapwa Ko Mahal has been recognized as Best Public Service Program by the PMPC and Catholic Mass Media Awards in various years while its hosts have at many times been recognized as Best Public Service Program hosts. In 2010, it was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for Public Service at the 6th USTV Awards.
There are many stories on the extent of Kapwa Ko Mahal Ko’s good deeds and how these have brought back smiles and laughter not only to the beneficiaries but also to their families. I had a neighbor who tried to ask for a wheelchair for her 90-year-old Mother who lives in Quezon. I asked her to try Kapwa Ko Mahal Ko; a week after I met her, proudly wheeling in her mother in a new wheelchair. She kissed my hands tearfully thanking me for the referral.
Because of my association with Connie, I have talked to hundreds of beneficiaries who related their heart-rending stories. Recounting these stories would take up an entire column or two. I realize that there are many out there crying for help.
In my Spiral of Life, sometimes, encounters with those in need saddens me but when I am able to help, the climb going up is easier.
“If He asks much of you, it is because He knows you can give much.” (St. Pope John Paul II)
