TRIBUTE: Ting taught me surgery, how to be brave, to question, to stand up for the truth

(Tribute delivered by Dr. Ruben G. Robillo on 22 May 2023,  the last night of the wake for Dr. Jose ‘Ting’ M. Tiongco, at the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes along Cabaguio in Davao City) 

Good evening, everyone. Of course we (express) our condolences, not only to you, but to all of us. We feel the loss. All of us. Not just the family. But the other family – we (health sector) are the other family of Ting.

I see his face there (points to blown up photo of Dr. Ting Tiongco), that impish look. You know, Ting had a lot of talents but he was a corny joker. He makes corny jokes (narrates a corny joke).

Anyway, so I met Ting when I was in 2^nd year residency in the then Davao General Hospital. Bagong dating siya. Kapapasa pa lang sa diplomate board, and he came to the Department of Surgery swaggering.  Ang yabang, ano? Maporma. Sabi ko, “sino tong taga UP-PGH na ‘to. Ang yabang.”

So, initially, we were sort of parang medyo ilag kami sa kanya. But he was able to win us easily. So very easily. Kasi, “don’t call me ‘Boss,’” gaya ng sabi niya kay Dr. (Bong) Vega, “don’t call me Dr. Tiongco, call me Ting.” So, since then, everybody called him Ting. 

And I was fortunate na just as I was in my training, dumating si Ting sa aming hospital. Because during that time, like all government hospitals, Davao General Hospital was in a terrible state. Gaya nga ng sinabi ni Bong, walang gamot, we had this ward we called the “Mona Lisa Ward” because they just lay there and they die there. So it was so terrible and Ting couldn’t stand it. 

Alam mo naman si Ting, like you said, relentless, passionate, dreamer at kung ano-ano pa mgaadjectives. These were all true. Hindi siya mapalagay. Sabi nya, “bakit.” He’ll say, like Bong said, “Why? Why is this happening? Why is the budget of the Department of Health the lowest in the Marcos (Sr.) administration. While military budget was 25%, health had only 3% or even lower.” Sabi nya, di pwede yan. So he started mobilizing us and we found ourselves marching in the streets, between duties, carrying placards and demonstrating to the point that no less than the Minister of Health then came to Davao. “Ano bang nangyayari diyan?”

So, he called us for a meeting and we attended a conference with Ting. I think it was Minister Azurin. And somehow, Ting didn’t like the way he explained the shortness of the budget etc, etc. To Ting, it didn’t sound too convincing. So in the middle of it all, Ting stood up and went out. Pagkakita namin, tayo din kami lahat. So we left Minister Azurin all by his lone self.  We walked out. All of us walked out.  Ganoon ka radical si Ting, ganon mag-isip. 

I think all of those efforts actually paid off. Because gradually, the budget of the hospital increased and the medicines became available, nagkaroon ng linen — dati kahit na linen wala eh. The patients had to bring their own banig whenever they were admitted because there were no linens. Then we had to give our samples to the patients because wala silang gamot. So ganon. And Ting saw that. And he was in the middle of that and he said, “Why? Why is this so terrible? What can we do?” So we started marching in the streets. 

Ang masama pa noon, kasi Martial Law. So the then medical director, Dr. Jacinto, called in the military to become security guards. Ang mga security guards namin, may mga Uzi, may mga armalite. And the Department of Surgery doctors were refused entry to the hospital because of Ting. So nagcli-clinic kami sa labas, nagtutuli kami sa labas. In between, we’d still go marching. 

Ting became the founder, the head of Health Alliance Mindanao in Davao. So we came up with this group and we were questioning, not just the health budget, but the Presidential Decrees of our then president, the older Marcos, especially this PD 169 was so anti-doctor, anti-patient. It required us doctors, especially surgeons to report to the military any patient that has suspicious gunshot wounds. 

Sabi namin, “Hindi pwede ‘yan.” Before your PD, we took our Hippocratic Oath. So we … organized a symposium … with the help of the doctors or interns, sina Jack Estuart, etc.. We had a conference called “Medicine and the Law.” 

The nice thing about it was we were able to invite speakers from Manila to come. Sila Haydee Yorac, sila JBL Reyes, Perfecto Fernandez. And of course there was Bebot Bello. And then we had our own lawyers, Larry Ilagan,  Mark Risonar, Tony Arellano. All big guns were there. And of course, on the other side of the table, there was Col. Lacanilao, who was the … commander of 75^thIB in Davao and then of course the whole regional commander General Brawner, the older one (Felix Brawner)

So pinresent namin sa kanila ang problema sabi namin, we cannot follow the presidential decree kahit na patayin nyo pa kami, sabi ni Ting, “because we took our Hippocratic Oath. There is a code of confidentiality. We cannot just expose all our patients because they were shot, there had gunshot wounds. We treat the person, bahala na kayo hanapin ‘yon. We cannot work with you along that line.”

With the big shot lawyers and judges who helped us, so eventually General Brawner relented. He said, “O sige. I cannot change the decree of the President but we can always look the other way.” And because of that conference, a lot of us were prevented from being put in jail. Dahil sa we were threatened, nandoon na kami sa listahan ng military ang mga pangalan namin nila Ting. Anyway, that was fun. 

The Davao Gen, as it was then called, became Davao Regional Medical and Training Center as its second name because of Ting Tiongco. Kasi noong dumating si Ting, sabi niya, “Ano man ito, walang training? Nag-department department kayo, wala kayong training?”

“Marami man kaming kaso, Boss”

 “Bakit wala kayong training? Asan ang library niyo?” 

Sabi ko, “Wala kaming library.” He asked, “Anong libro mo?” sabi ko, “Eto, Harrison.” 

 “Harrison?” (and Ting named several book authors and asked them if they had their books).  Sabi ko, “Who are those guys, boss?” Ting was so exasperated with us. But anyway, he said, “Hanap ka ng libro, because we are going to be accredited by the Philippine College of Surgeons, whether you like it or not.” 

So we were all sent out, Dr. (Romulo) Busuego, myself, and the other frontliners. We started looking for the books that he saw and made a little library in the conference room. Then came Jo Ram and other people from the Philippine College of Surgeons to inspect us. We had our journals, we prepared them under the guidance of Ting and we didn’t realize that what we were doing in our surgeries — saksak sinagol ba — walay guidance and there was Ting to guide us. Eventually we were able to monitor, modify, and perfect our surgeries and when the people from the Philippine College of Surgeons came, we became accredited. 

We became the first training department in the hospital — Surgery — all because of Ting. So we were so proud. Suddenly, we were known. Haha. Ang ganda ng clinic o. Baka maging trained surgeon ako. So, I realized kasi nahabol ko eh I was in my second year, Busuego was I think in his first year. So we became the first department in the hospital to become accredited. 

Soon later, nainggit yung Department of Medicine, sina Dr. (Jose Rene) Lacuesta, nainggit, nagpa-accredit din sila. And not too far later on, the Department of Pediatrics, Anaesthesia, and before we knew it, all the major departments in the hospital became accredited. 

So it was only natural to change Davao Gen to become Davao Regional Medical and Training Center. So, I’d like to emphasize that: this was all because of the efforts of Ting. We became the DRMTC — the second name of Davao Gen (applause)

Kami ni Ting very close because I was more senior and we were always together, we worked together. And we came up with a newsletter in DMC — the Murmurs — we called it. Lahat ng chismis sa hospital nilagay namin doon… pati yung sa aming chief of hospital. 

So the editor-in-chief was Dr. Lacuesta and Dr. Ed Lim from PGH who came and helped us with the editorial as well. So, underground newspaper ito. And this spelled the fall of the administration of Davao Medical Center during that time. 

I remember also one thing that also happened, magkasama kami ni Dr. Tiongco and Dr. Vega, when we were invited by the head of religious people of Brokenshire Memorial Hospital. During that time, during the 1980s, Brokenshire was closed because they had been on strike, on strike by the KMU and because it was not serving properly the communities so nagsara sila. 

Finally, nag-decide yung mga head, religious people nila, to invite us—Dr. Tiongco, Dr. Vega and myself — we went to Manila on their invitation to ask our opinions, especially Ting’s, kung anong gagawin namin sa Brokenshire. So, we went there and that is very memorable because we went down on the evening of EDSA. February (22), 1986, so we were so excited to go to Manila to attend this conference with the bishops. Pag landing namin, nagsimula ang EDSA. Kaya I can probably say I was the first person in EDSA. From the airport, deretso ako sa Camp Aguinaldo. Wala pang tao. But that’s another story. 

But the very next day, tuloy pa rin ang aming conference. Nagkapatayan na, nagkaputukan na sa labas — persistent pa rin yung mga bishop to consult with us because they had to finish what they came here in the Philippines for — to decide the fate of Brokenshire. 

I remember that old house along a street called Bilibid Viejo in Manila. We were meeting  there. And Ting was, as usual, relentless. Talagang walang laban ang mga bishop. Sabi ni Ting, “Buksan ninyo. Open the hospital because it is serving the public. We have doctors that we can recommend.” Sila kuwan yun, si Jean Lindo, yung mga doctor nila, mga aktibistang doctor, mga taga Alamapa. We endorsed them to run Brokenshire and they did a good job. Sila nila Dr. (Jack) Estuart, Dr. Jean of course and the other guys, Dr. Valdez, etc. So because of that, I’d like to emphasize that, nabuksan ang Brokenshire, because of that meeting we had with the bishops. 

And it is very memorable, historical because it happened during the EDSA. So, the very next day, nag-celebrate kami. Yehey. We went out and started joining the marchers going to Malacanang. We were marching with the guys there. It was a double celebration. We were able to convince them to open Brokenshire and we were going to march to Malacanang to oust the dictator.

Di kami nakarating ng Malacanang. Palahubog kami eh. Palahubog si Ting eh. And people were offering us drinks, beer everywhere we were going. So midway going to Malacanang, we were all drunk. Umuwi na lang kami sa bahay doon sa Quezon City. And we woke up the next day with a terrible headache. But it was fun. It was successful.

Another thing that happened was Ting had a patient named Attorney Guillermo during his practice in Davao Doctors. Atty. Guillermo had an appendicitis. Ting took out his appendix. Habang nag-uusap sila, sabi ni Atty. Guillermo, “Sus. siguro kung hindi ako presidente/chairman ng aming banko, I cannot afford this kind of surgery. Mahal dito sa Davao Doctors eh. Kung sana nagingcooperative pala sila, sabi ni Atty. Guillermo, baka pwede pa.”

Sabi ni Dr. Tiongco, “can you tell me more about it?” ***

So, both passionate people nag-usap, and Ting, before he knew it, became infected  by the passion of Atty. Guillermo. Pagdating niya, tawag siya sa amin, sabi niya, “Let’s have a meeting. I have an idea. Instead of being a foundation, let’s become a cooperative.” So, we started becoming a cooperative. We took seminars on cooperativism and before he knew it, the first Medical Mission was established in there, in Agdao. 

Then one day, a friend, classmate taga-Davao na taga-Quezon came. Dr. Pete Hao. Sabi niya, “Ben, anong racket ninyo dito.” Sabi ko, meron kaming cooperative hospital. “Ano ‘yan? Pwede ba ‘yan?”“Pwede sa amin sa Quezon ‘yan?” 

“Sabi ko dalahin mo mga doctor ninyo, pasalihin natin sa seminar.” So Pete Hao brought his doctors from Quezon to Davao and Ting gave them a very, very comprehensive seminar on cooperativism. And nadala. They invited us to go to Quezon and we formed a cooperative there and it is one of the more successful cooperatives up to now. 

But during that time, we were also busy putting up Tagum. We were putting up Tagum Hospital, and of course, Ting’s ideas about putting up a hospital, bumili kami ng pampagawa ng roof tiles, he redesigned the hospital together with Architect Racho, so that we won’t need an aircon, sabi niya,we will have the air vent that flows through the hospital. Akala mo, architect din siya no. So, those are the things I remember about Ting.

Of course, not to forget, meron pang isa. Marami pa but this one I’d really not like to forget, because this was one of the fun things that we had which is Ward 21. Why Ward 21? Sabi nya, kasi duringthat time, we were trying to raise money to finance the hospital, we had a small clinic-hospital which we called the “guerrilla hospital” wherein we were being provided patients by Dr. Busuego who was our chief guerrilla in Davao Medical Center, sending us patients to the guerrilla hospital that we could operate on. They had no money. They only paid sa ilang Medicare lang. Kulang ang pera namin. Sabi ni Ting, “How do we sustain this hospital?” 

Sabi nya, “Bay kabalo kog German ba. I met these German people. They’re running a hospital in Semirara. Gusto ninyo, adto ta didto, Bay.” Di ko naman maintindihan ‘yan. Sabi niya “ako bahala sa kanila. Ako bahala basta we go there, let’s run the hospital and we charge them in (Deutsche Mark).”  So we were sent to Seminara to run a hospital, wala kaming kamalay-malay, basta kung anong sabihin ni Ting we go, like the good lieutenants that we were. 

And we ran that hospital for more than a year. We made a lot of money there. So yung aming maliit na guerrilla hospital grew. Nagkaroon kami ng pera. “Kulang pa,” sabi ni Ting, “ano pang idagdag natin? Let’s go to the entertainment industry. Malakas ang mga bar ngayon.  Let’s put up our own bar.” So we put up our own bar, the Ward 21. We go there a lot in the evening, drink and have fun. 

And of course we pay our own bills and the money that we paid goes back to us, to the hospital. So much so that we were able to raise mga 800,000 pesos ata yun  Bong? Because we gave the money to Bong Vega (laughter). Sabi ni Ting, “Bong, bahala ka na. Buy equipment in Manila.” We just saw in the newspaper that a certain hospital called Grace Hospital in Caloocan, nagsara, at sine-sale yung kanilang mga equipment. 

So like the good soldier that Bong was, pumunta siya ng Manila, bitbit yung pera. A few weeks later, balik siya, may dalang isang container van. Punong-puno ng mga gamit. So that’s why we were able to put up a more decent hospital kuno, in the old house of the Carriedos, didto sa Barrio Obrero. The Carriedos, Alex Carriedo,  rented it to us for one peso a year, yung kanyang bahay. Sabi niya, “Gamitin niyo wala naman ako diyan eh.” 

So we had that for several years before we became a cooperative.  And it was a very successful hospital, actually. And, some of the things that Ting’s ideas were — we were able to put up a halfway house for the hospital. So that mabilis ang rotation namin, after surgery, the patient, pag nakautot na siya, ilipat na namin siya sa halfway house so that ma-available naman ang beds because we only had 10 beds in the hospital. So, we had to get him as fast as we can out of the hospital to the halfway house wherein we gave allowance to the old couple who lived there to take care of our patients. So, it was a nice idea. 

And then, part of the finances is that we came up with a community health program. This became the community health fund which is still being used up to now. It is community insurance wherein every family contributes a hundred pesos a month and that will already entitle them to free consultations  and 30% discount for hospitalization. And we had a lot of patients. I think some are still using that now. 

So, those were the ideas that Ting had. Overflowing, so much. 

Kaya lang, kagaya ng sinabi kanina, without beer, malungkot. In all of our activities, beer was always present sa amin ni Ting. 

Anyway, I have a lot of gratitude for Ting. He taught me surgery. He taught me how to be brave. He taught me how to question. He taught me how to stand up for the truth. He taught me that life is a continuous struggle. Walang katapusan ito, like what we used to say: “Until every cry of anguish and pain, every heartache and every hunger can seek attention and care, without fear of discrimination or unavailability, until then, our work is never done.”

So Ting, our work will not be done yet. Una kang umalis. But do not worry, we will carry it out.  

Thank you very much my friend, my mentor, my tormentor, my teacher. Maraming salamat. 

(Dr. Ruben G. Robillo is chair of the Medical Mission Group Hospitals and Health Services Cooperative in Davao City, which set up the country’s first cooperative hospital and cooperative health fund) 

*** Dr. Ting Tiongco’s narration of events in relation to Atty. Josefito Guillermo is that three years before the MMG Foundation became a cooperative, “I had taken out his ruptured appendix in a private hospital in Davao City. We remained nodding acquaintances until our conversion to cooperatives.” Tiongco narrated this in his 1996 book, ‘Child of the Sun Returning.’ He referred to Guillermo, then manager of the Cooperative Bank of Davao City, as their “Guide” and called him “Bossman.” Guillermo’s bank financed the amount they needed to finish the construction of the country’ first cooperative hospital. Guillermo passed away in March 2009).