MANILA Congressman Rolan Valeriano is challenging those who have been taunting Mayor Honey Lacuna’s being a doctor to examine themselves closely, as to what degree they have finished and what they have reached in life.
Valeriano, who chairs the House Committee on Metro Manila Development and member of the Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, also reminded them that it was Lacuna, then as Vice Mayor, who handled the city’s health cluster during the pandemic and made the city’s COVID response highly efficient.
Valeriano, better known as ‘CRV’, lashed back at what he described as ‘mga nagmamarunong na vloggers at trolls,’ whom he said have no right to mock the lady mayor’s being a dermatologist.
He said there is nothing to mock because being a doctor is not an easy feat and is almost every other parent’s most common, biggest dream for his child, just like being a lawyer.
The Congressman also detailed that Lacuna began serving as a doctor in the city of Manila way back in 1992 and had been a licensed doctor for over 30 years.
The mayor, he added, is a general practitioner in the field of public health, having served at the Ospital ng Maynila, Manila Health Department, City Social Welfare Department and health centers in Tondo and Bacood.
“Kaya kayong mga bayarang vloggers diyan sa gedli-geldi, tabi-tabi, sulok-sulok at ilalim ng lupa, kumonsulta na kayo sa dermatologist dahil baka may kumapit na palang sakit sa makapal ninyong balat kasi di tinatablan ng kahihiyan,” he said.
The Congressman further said: “O kaya magtakip na lang siguro kayo ng bayong sa ulo para itago ang inyong mukha. Kayo ang mga modernong MAKAPILI na binabayaran upang manira ng taong puro para sa kabutihan ng mga Manileño ang misyon sa buhay niya. Iskonian vloggers, mahiya kayo sa balat ninyo!”
As a doctor who had specialized in dermatology, Valeriano said that Lacuna even studied for three extra years and had to pass the dermatology board exam before becoming a full-fledged dermatologist.
“Malawak ang sakop ng dermatology. Hindi lang ito tungkol sa ‘gluta’ o pagpapaganda. Ang dermatology ay tungkol sa lahat ng may kinalaman sa balat, buhok at kuko ng tao. Nariyan na ang mga skin rash, infection, sugat, pasa, bukol at mga communicable diseases na ang paraan ng pagkahawa ay sa skin-to-skin contact,” the congressman said.
Indeed, and I know this for a fact, that it was Lacuna, then the vice mayor of Manila, who lent her expertise as a doctor, in making the city’s handling of COVID cases and vaccination system highly systematic, effective and swift.
In addition, she herself performed vaccinations on the elderly and immobilized residents, so much so that then Mayor Isko Moreno tagged her as ‘Honey Bakuna.’
Unlike Moreno who was giving orders in the comfort of his office, Lacuna at that time was risking her very own life by going out and vaccinating Manilans on a daily basis, even at the height of the pandemic.
I know this for a fact because she was the one who also vaccinated my late boss Gus Villanueva and even an elderly family member of mine, among many others lined up for that day.
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