Dr. Thelma N. Clemente

Christ is Risen! Halleluia! Today is Easter Sunday, Jesus will stride triumphantly down the aisle, trading his crown of thorns for a crown for the King of Kings! And we Christians from all over the globe will be cheering Him on.

Why all the excitement? Think of the message of Easter. Jesus has conquered death. Theologians and others argue continuously what that means. But perhaps this is a week to just get down to simple facts. Whether or not you believe the message of the Bible about Jesus does not change the fact that it happened.

As Jesus triumphed over death, so should we cast away our worries, anxieties, anger, and past hurts. Let us embrace the joy that Easter brings and hope that May 10 elections will be a day of triumph for those who deserve to be elected.

***

One of the first privately-owned and operated hospitals in the country, the Capitol Medical Center in Quezon City,  turned 40 years old last  March 19, feast of St. Joseph.

If it has grown and flourished in its service to its patients throughout four decades, it is mostly through the vision and the perseverance of its founder and president, Dr. Thelma Navarette Clemente and her husband, Engr. Luis Clemente.

She broke out of the mold for lady physicians 40 years ago and dared put up a medical hospital and leave her successful private clinic behind. The daunting challenges that the big endeavor entailed failed to derail her vision to lift medical services to new heights.

Today, Dr. Clemente is regarded by her peers from the Philippine Hospital Association, the UP College of Medicine, various socio-civic organizations where she lends her talents and resources in very high esteem. She was influential and was listened to for her innovative ideas in her fields of expertise. She has refused to rest on her many laurels and continues to push the staff of Capitol Medical Center to her goal of excellence.

She   is one of the pioneers of medical tourism and wellness programs and CMC is one of the accredited medical facilities with ultra modern medical equipment and services in the forefront of this rising tourism industry. She is still hands–on in the center’s policies but has left the daily operations to her capable staff including her children, Dr.Edgardo Clemente, MD, Luis Antonio Clemente, and Carmina C. Desales, MHA, FPCHA.

A true renaissance woman, she paints, writes poetry and her prose just cascades with beautiful thoughts and dreams.   Some of her fondest memories are with that of her beloved husband and children, and her staff of true professionals who never fail to serenade her with home-grown concerts during her birthday. She also recalls that Bishop Antonio Casas blessed the CMC building and that Cory Aquino was one of the sponsors during the hospital inauguration and was always so supportive of her efforts before, during and after her presidency.

The CMC boasts of a top-notch staff in its 300-bed capacity hospital which has world-class services and equipment such as a 128 Slice C T Scanner, a new hemodialysis center and an ECG laboratory among other top medical tools to serve patience.

Bouquets and congratulations, my dear friend and “idol” Dra. Clemente !

***

Two Smartmatic communications persons came to lunch at our Pulong Bulungan to give us a demo on the machines to be used on May 10.    

Most of us, even the cynical ones, admitted afterwards that indeed, the semi -automated elections does seem cheat-free. It will really take an evil computer genius (with lots and lots of time and money) to devise ways and means of padding or subtracting votes for particular candidates. The system will make the tabulation fully automated but not the actual voting because you have to manually shade the tiny “ovals” before each candidates’ names. In a fully automated election, you will just have to push buttons. No checks, circles, or crossing, please with the Smartmatic machines.

We were assured by the company’s Gene Gregorio and Miguel Avila that the pen is a special hardly-bleeding pen with indelible ink! The long ballot, longer than your average business-size bond paper and with security marks comes with individualized bar codes, like the ones that you have on grocery items for example, which the computerized cash register “reads” when you pass the item in front of the scanner.

So far, so good. The machine will not accept a ballot with l) tampered bar code, 2) any other markings, 3) over shaded ovals running into each other. A voter will not have a chance to get back his ballot if he changes his mind after putting it in the machine. (Yes, the voter must put in the ballot himself and he can immediately see on the screen that your ballot has been accepted.)  The ballots come with has the names of the national candidates on the front page (presidentiables, vice- presidentiables, and senatoriables) and on the back page are the names of local candidates – governors, vice-governors, mayors, vice-mayors, congressmen, provincial board members and councilors.

The machine will read, simultaneously, front and back pages so it does not matter if you put the ballot right side up or back page first. Neat. The messy part is the shading of the ovals, so be careful you don’t shade it too much so it goes out of the tiny ovals. To facilitate voting, bring a “kodigo” with you so you can confidently shade in your choices. Candidates can therefore help by providing voters with sample ballots.