Diagnosing the Center

Who will conduct the investigation? Reports floated yesterday that there is a move to seek a probe into the decision of the judges who gave the scores that made Manny Pacquiao win that March 15 bout at the Mandalay Hotel Events Center. Don’t tell me the Senate is going to do it, the members there have too many probes going on already. I wonder if their intention is to investigate the judges of the game. Maybe those questioning the results – Filipinos at that – got carried away by the sight of Juan Manuel Marquez being carried on the shoulders of his compatriot and waving to the crowd as if he had won already.

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I’m sure many viewers had noted that moment when Marquez, looking triumphant despite his bleeding cut, strutted around. By the way, several noticed that, after he got the cut over his eye, Marquez went to his corner and his attendants worked to stem the bleeding. It was shown on TV that his doctor had inserted something into the cut that seemed to stop the bleeding. Is it true that doing that is supposed to be prohibited during a fight? Yet nobody from Pacquiao’s camp questioned that. Fortunately, Pacquiao’s doctor also managed to stop his bleeding; later, the champion was reported to have praised his doctor for managing his own wound so well.

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It was obvious who was the most sportsmanlike of the two contenders. As if previous fights, Pacquiao was never heard criticizing his opponent or the judging. But Marquez crudely slammed the judges in an interview right after the bout. He called them “unfair”, and threw another challenge to Pacquiao. Maybe he wants to regain himself before the eyes of his countrymen. Remember how he had boasted before the match that he was going to redeem and avenge his countrymen who had fallen before the Philippines?

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As for the judges, one of them had even admitted, during Marquez’s match with Pacquiao that had been declared a draw, that he had committed an error, and that the game should have gone to Manny Pacquiao. Marquez is admittedly a good fighter, but he apparently needs a primer on good manners. Now he wants to fight Pacquiao again, but the latter’s promoters are eyeing David Diaz for him in June. That news got Bitay Lacson worried, because, he says, Diaz is much bigger and stronger, and would be dangerous. Well, let’s see what the Pacman himself decides.

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On Monday, I accompanied my sister who had been advised by her doctor to undergo x-ray examination because of some pain she was experiencing, a few days after meeting an accident. We went to the Bacolod Diagnostic Center since we heard it is not as busy as other laboratories. We should have known it would be full, since there had been four days of holidays. After telling us that there were 30 patients waiting for x-rays, too, the one manning the counter advised us to come back at 2:30 p.m. We returned about 2:15, but were told others had lined up before us already, so we should wait.

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We waited for more than half an hour before her turn came. After a rather lengthy session – four plates had to be used – we were told to come back next day at 4 p.m. We returned at the appointed time, but the one at the counter just took my sister’s receipt, proof that she had paid, and said we should wait because the one in charge of the results was “having lunch”. So we waited and waited and waited, but everybody seemed to have gotten off for lunch, except one person who flip-flopped back and forth (in slippers), trying to attend to some. When we asked him for our results, he said they were with the other person. So we waited and waited again until it was about 15 minutes to 5 p.m., after which we had several other appointments, and I complained about the unprofessionalism of not having anybody take over when someone goes “for lunch”.

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The waiting served some purpose: I was able to observe how really “unclinical” this center looks. The way waiting patients are crowding over, it looks like a terminal, or “paradahan”, and I also noted that they must have a very lazy janitor. I also sympathized with some of the patients who were casually told just to “come back tomorrow” when they could not be served. Up to the time we left, at 5 p.m., the one who got our receipt had not yet returned from “lunch”. But what heightened our apprehension most was the discovery that the name of our doctor had even been recorded wrongly. Last night, at a party we attended, at least two persons – one a doctor and the other a pharmacist – also related similar experiences at the same place.

I hope its management takes this as constructive criticism, because their services are needed by the community. With the number of people going there, surely, they can afford to improve, not only their physical set-up, but also the attitude of their staff.*

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