The story of Elmer Jacinto, the Basilan native who topped the 2004 medical board exams but ended up as a nurse in New York, continues to fascinate people. In this story, by the AP’s Adam Geller, Jacinto makes no apologies for his decision that stunned people.
Jacinto says he is finding a place for himself – and a sense of peace.
Back home, the expectation is “that you should become the model Filipino, doing it for your country. I want something for myself,” Jacinto says. “I want to move on.”
What would have been a story of personal conviction, even courage, has turned into a semi-tragedy, a saga not so much about a young, promising and talented Filipino but about his perpetually troubled nation.
In the end, most would probably agree that Jacinto did not fail his country — it’s his country that failed him.
Read Senator Aquilino Pimentel’s speech at the Senate last year about the travails of Filipino nurses, many of them from Mindanao, in other countries.
Read Davao Today editor Carlos Conde’s stories on labor migration and its impact on Philippine society: here, here, and here.)
[tags]davao today, davao, mindanao, basilan, philippines, nurses, filipino nurses, philippine nurses, OFW, migration, health case, elmer jacinto[/tags]
