The Center of Balete

Center. That is the way Baleten-ons referred to the Municipal Health Office since my childhood days. And it stuck until to now. I am particular to this reality as the family used to reside behind the old Puericulture Center of Balete where both my father and mother worked. When my mother got hired as Rural Health Midwife for Balete Rural Health Unit, the family decided to relocate and bought a small house behind it. It was easy to recognize one another then as there were only a handful of households in the poblacion. It was simply either one is from Ilaya or Ilawod.

The "Center" is geographically situated at the heart of the poblacion along with the old Town Hall, the Band Stand and the Church. It served as the boundary for the "taga-ilaya" and "taga-ilawod". It was implicitly regarded as a neutral place where animosity is temporarily set aside among the "warring gangs" of Ilaya and Ilawod. As the bell tolled to call the community to Angelus, any contest by the rival gangs were to be set aside, at least for a while. At nighttime, its spacious covered patio was a rendezvous for the Romeos and Juliets of the Poblacion.

The "Center" is known by many names. Originally, it was the Puericulture Center of Balete when it was first established in 1957. A cholera outbreak struck the community in the early 50's and the government relied on the humanitarian interventions of the National Federation of Women's Club of the Philippines (NFWCP) as there was no health personnel assigned in Balete at that time. While it is true that as early as 1921, the Public Welfare Commission was already tasked of supervising and organizing puericulture centers in the countryside with a mandate that all centers should have a doctor, a nurse, a midwife and a social worker, all to be paid by the government, the lack of funds delayed its establishment in Balete. It took the persistence of the strong-willed Pacita Calizo-Cortes, the chapter president of NFWCP, to bring in funds that pave for the eventual establishment of the "Center" and later on, its satellites in Aranas and Calizo.

The fine lady with a bag is the late Pacita Calizo-Cortes during her attendance to the
1st National League of Puericulture Centers National Convention
 at the Malacañang Palace in February 25, 1961
(Photo courtesy of Ms. Cecile Cortes-Vergara)

In 1961, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Children's Fund, the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office and provincial governors funded the construction of puericulture center buildings across the country. Remnants of the PCSO-funded centers are still standing up to now in Barangay Aranas and Barangay Calizo although the lack of appropriate documents--Deed of Donations--prevented the local government from undertaking their rehabilitation. But with the dearth of health personnel where there was only one midwife who rounded the barrios as the doctor and the nurse were "center-based", the people relied so much on the active involvement of the NFWCP for their health and sanitation needs and in their absence, from the community cirujanos (not to be confused with the cirujanos ministrates—male nurses—of the Spanish era) and herbolarios (or albularyo). Thus, that generation remembers its one and only president as the Florence Nightingale of Balete for her advocacy in promoting health and sanitation among the rural folks. Her death in 1963 therefore was regarded as a great lost that eventually led to the fading out of her Women's Club even before the onset of the Marcos years. 

During the Martial Law years, the "Center" became known as Rural Health Unit where it welcomed batches of newly graduated health practitioners doing their mandatory Rural Health Service. Nurses and midwives reached out into the barrios to provide the needed health services to complement (or counteract—whatever) the Community-Based Health Practitioners' efforts at reaching out to the rural masses. 

The passage of the Local Government Code in 1991 dramatically brought changes which devolved health services and its personnel administration under the local government units (LGUs). The "Center" took form to be called thus as the Municipal Health Office with the Municipal Health Officer as its Department Head. As if wanting to radically change everything in it, a powerful earthquake pulverized the building in June of that year. But the spirit of Pacita held on. Through the appeal of her daughter, Ma. Cecilia Cortes-Vergara, who was the confidential secretary then of Secretary Raul Manglapus at the Department of Foreign Affairs, then Department of Health Secretary Alfredo Benzon appropriated certain amount for the immediate construction of a new health center. 

With the new "Center" rising out from the rubles of the old and beloved puericulture center, the local officials were said to have committed to rename it in honor of the memory of Pacita Calizo-Cortes and a way of saying thank-you to Ms. Vergara. In as much as it was now under the LGU, the Sangguniang Bayan by virtue of the LGC can and has the power to rename it upon consultation with the National Historical Institute (now National Historical Commission of the Philippines). Eventually, a signage bearing the name "Pacita Calizo-Cortes Memorial Health Center" was installed prominently atop the new "Center" (people keep on calling it that way even if it the old structure is no more and the new one has a different feature and name).

A recent (June 26, 2014) milestone ordinance enacted by the Sangguniang Bayan of the Municipality of Balete is a ratification of the use of name "Pacita Calizo-Cortes Health Center" as the official name of the Municipal Health Office. It is a belated legislative intervention to rectify the inadvertence of the past. The people of Balete have noted the signage for the past 23 years but no one bothered to inform the public who Pacita Calizo-Cortes was and why was a public, a health edifice for that matter, has to be named after her. She was not even a government official nor held a government position during her time.

So you ask me who is Pacita Calizo-Cortes and why the “Center” is officially named in her memory. The Sangguniang Bayan provides us the clue. Allow me then to quote in toto its brief introduction to Ordinance No. 35, s. 2014:

“The late Pacita Calizo-Cortes is beloved by the people of Balete in her time for her dedication and commitment in promoting health programs especially for the poorest of the poor. She was said to have selflessly reached out to barriofolks of Balete who were maligned by cholera outbreak in the 50’s. She worked hard for the eventual establishment of the Puericulture Center, the precursor of the Rural Health Unit which was the reason why up to now, people call it with affection as the “Center.” She served as its president since its establishment until her death in January 5, 1963. The younger generation however needs to be reminded of her legacy while at the same time we deemed it proper to preserve her memory as a relevant chapter in the history of our town.

“Pacita F. Calizo – Cortes was the youngest daughter of Adriano C. Calizo, former Gobernadorcillo of Balete way back in 1882, to Doña Petra Feliciano-Calizo. Her contemporary referred to her as the Florence Nightingale of Balete. Her elder brother was Miguel F. Calizo, Presidente Municipal (Municipal Mayor) of Balete during the American period in 1923-1925; during the Japanese occupation in 1941-1945; and from 1946-1947 when the Philippines was savoring its newly gained independence.

“The Rural Health Unit of Balete has carried the name “Pacita Calizo-Cortes Memorial Health Center” for many years now. While national government agencies, particularly DOH and Philhealth recognized it as the Balete Rural Health Center, the people of Balete are well aware of the name of that venerable lady as the one imposed on its signage.

“It is for these reasons then that the Local Health Board of the Municipality of Balete, heeding the request of the Heirs of the late Pacita Calizo-Cortes, recommended the ratification of the use of her name as the official name of the Rural Health Unit of Balete, Aklan.  For aesthetic consideration per the recommendation of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines, the word “memorial” shall be omitted thus.”

The Sanggunian Bayan acted on the matter based upon a resolution unanimously adopted by the Municipal Health Board of Balete on May 8, 2014. The resolution was favorably endorsing the letter of the Heirs of the late Pacita Calizo-Cortes who were seeking its intervention to affirm with legislative mandate the use of the name of their mother as the official name of the center.

A nurse under the Nurses to the Barrio Program
reached out to the remote barangay of Guanko.

The poblacion has dramatically changed over the years and with it comes new orientations, new values, new priorities for a diversified community. The “Taga-ilawod” and the Taga-ilaya” are still there adapting and adjusting to the changes that came with the “sprouting” of new communities in growing urbanization of Balete. The rivalry is no longer as intense as before, and yet, the Center remains their spontaneously agreed boundary.