Philippine Gift of Life (PGL) President and Chief Executive Officer Francisca Baluyot was still recovering her senses from the shock of the strong October 15 morning earthquake when news came to her---she had just been chosen the country’s model nurse. No less than Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) President Noel Cadete broke to her the news but the extreme joy she should have felt was overpowered by grief as text messages of the unthinkable devastation and instant death toll began to spread. Baluyot won the prestigious national 2013 Huwarang Nars ng Bayan Award given by the PNA for her “exceptional performance beyond her regular duties and responsibilities in providing service to others, creation of positive change to individuals, families, groups and communities, and projection of a positive image of the nursing profession.”

She has consecrated her nursing profession to lifetime humanitarian cause and career that have already spanned half a century since her Bohol Red Cross administration until her present PGL mercy work. Representing Region 7, the Boholana icon of Philippine humanitarian service and medical-surgical mission bested other regional candidates across the country and nominees of Filipino groups in America and Europe. Baluyot was to receive the honor during the joint 56th Nurses Week Celebration, 91st Foundation Anniversary and 2013 Annual National Convention of the PNA at the Aziza Paradise Hotel in Puerto Princesa, Palawan on October 22 but she regretted she could not come.

The PGL power woman chose not to leave Bohol and responded to the call of Gov. Edgar Chatto for urgent help to their suffering fellow Boholanos who were hardest hit by the most destructive quake in the history of the island- province. At the same time, Baluyot facilitated the final screening of the patients who would undergo free heart operation in a major surgical mission sponsored by the provincial government under Chatto in December. Baluyot is the medical mission consultant to the governor. To be held at the Borja Family Hospital here, the upcoming heart mission which also saves the lives of the sick from outside like Metro Manila, Cebu, Leyte, Bukidnon and Zamboanga could only prove that Bohol is not hopeless despite its own agony inflicted by the great quake, Baluyot said.

Chatto himself backed Baluyot’s nomination to the PNA award, citing her “gesture of helping our indigents through humanitarian and missionary endeavors” as “indeed an exceptional one and truly deserving recognition.” “My recommendee possesses all the qualifications and none of the disqualifications for the award,” the governor, himself a Boholano leader of soft heart for the needy, wrote of Baluyot to the awards committee. “With full dedication, integrity and competence,” Baluyot has been “instrumental to the success of our health programs by way of providing our constituents free access to health care services,” Chatto said. The governor further credited her for assisting in the successful construction of health buildings and facilities and provision of medical equipment and medicines to hospitals and communities.

Bishop Leonardo Medroso of the Diocese of Tagbilaran also supported Baluyot, saying that “from ensuring that remote areas have access to first aid supplies and treatment to facilitating free life-saving heart operations locally and abroad, her drive to ceaselessly uphold what is right over wrong breaks open any glass walls.” Baluyot’s “life of service is a great credit to the nursing profession, which has been enriched as a result,” the Church official said in his separate endorsement. The bishop said Baluyot “has chosen a life that believes that failing to act for the good of one’s unfortunate brothers and sisters is wrong and that doing everything she can to alleviate, remedy and positively impact such trials and challenges is right.”

She “has been a staunch pillar of the Boholano community whose reach, influence and philanthropic works have extended beyond the borders of our province over the course of many years,” Medroso said. On October 26, Julius Daño, national governor of the PNA, was accompanied by Dr. Florante Lomibao, a constant supporter of Bohol medical-surgical missions, in flying to Bohol and personally handing to Baluyot the award plaque and cash prize of P60,000. A source close to the awardee said Baluyot used the money in extending relief aids to the quake victims thru PNA-Bohol. “I thought I couldn’t be any prouder of you than I’ve been my whole life. You always prove me wrong,” Baluyot’s child Fama wrote to her mother on her social media account.

Fama, a lawyer, and brother Kazan, a doctor, facilitated donations from her law firm and friends and his fellows of the UP Medical Alumni – MU Fraternity to assist the PGL relief operation initiated by their mother for the quake victims. All nurses like their mother, Baluyot’s four children in the US---Cates, Judith, Alphonse and Joseph---also raised aids with their friends in the foreign land. The president of the Bohol Medical Society (BMS), Mary Ann, Baluyot’s only other doctor child, and her friends likewise assisted the PGL in relief works. Instead of going to Palawan to accept her award, Baluyot instead delivered relief goods to the quake victims in danger zones like the severely-ravaged Sagbayan town where ground shaking days after the main jolt seemed to have no end. Baluyot thanked her children and those who aided thru them as well as the help of the PGL itself thru Board of Trustees chairman Dr. Ramie Cadag, Home Reach Foundation thru chairman Dr. Pepe Recitas and co-chair who is also Cadag, business sector and private entities like the Bohol Quality thru PGL director Ben Ong and Dativa Ong for the transport of the relief goods, BMS, Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) – Bohol Chapter, and all others who will be acknowledged in due time.

BEST MOTHER AND FULFILLED WOMAN

PNA’s model nurse award is Baluyot’s second national honor from two different institutions in less than two years after she was conferred in May 2012 the national Ulirang Ina Award by the National Mother’s Day and Father’s Day Foundation, Inc. Her many previous distinctions and recognitions included the Paul Harris Recognition Award sponsored by the Rotary Club of New York, Humanitarian Golden Heart Award from the Home Reach Foundation in the US and Canada, Gold Humanitarian Award from Red Cross, Datu Sikatuna Award which is the highest award given by the Provincial Government of Bohol, and Humanitarian Award from the alumni association of her alma mater, the School of Nursing of the then Southern Island Hospital and now the Don Vicente Sotto Medical Center.

Baluyot joined the Philippine National Red Cross right after graduation in 1960 and became its administrator in Bohol until her retirement in 2003 to head the country’s base, which is in Bohol, of the Gift of Life International up to this date. She was the first Red Cross administrator to attend the ICRC, PRC, PHELOM (Protocol of War and Geneva Convention). The Bohol Red Cross under her had collected a total of 25 million cc of blood given to more than 20,000 lives, including those outside Bohol during both natural and man-made disasters. As PGL executive, she caused the country’s five biggest heart surgical missions outside Metro Manila---and all in Bohol---from 2003 to 2011, saving the lives of already over 300 heart patients who included those from Luzon, Mindanao and other Visayas areas. Since her Red Cross years, Baluyot has already organized and coordinated in over 320 surgical-medical missions in tie-up with both foreign and local partners.

The surgical missions cured not just many heart patients but also thousands of the poor and sick who had ailments like cataract, thyroid goiter, myoma, ovarian cyst, hernia and colon cancer and deformities like cleft lip/palate. Baluyot still links with Red Cross as a chapter board director. Presently, Baluyot likewise serves as vice president of the Tagbilaran Puericulture and Children Hospital (TPCH). Baluyot had served as charter president of the Soroptomist Intenational – Bohol Chapter and Chocolate Hills Lady Jaycees, charter lady member and first elected president of the Rotary Club of Tagbilaran 3860, and five-time president of both the Association of Bohol Executives of National Agencies (ABENA) and PNA – Bohol Chapter. She is also the former chairman of the Medical Mission Group Hospital and Health Services Cooperative - Bohol Cooperative Hospital (MMGHHSC-BCH)) and former director of the Bohol Medical Care Institute (BMCI).

Baluyot is now reputed to be the first Boholana ever conferred the national model nurse honor since the PNA founding 91 years ago. (Ven rebo Arigo)