A True Story About A Promising Young Singer

Feb. 27,2010
Feature Story
A True Story About Young Singer Who Gets Sick
By Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr

Maasin City, Southern Leyte-Bad rumors silently spread like wild fire when a local promising young singer gets afflicted with a paralyzing disease that deeply grieved her parents, who also have to bear the pitiful condition of their child. At first the singer’s mother wants to retaliate and confront those badmouths, but the spirit of humility pervades in her heart and lulls down her plans to file charges in court against those backbiters. Instead she keeps her composure and is hopeful though, that when the time ripens, the truth of her child’s affliction will vindicate their malicious gossips.
Here is the real thing, a true story of Josephine Batistil Ramos that becomes a household byword by many in some communities of the province during her popularity as a promising young singer. By her behaviors and choices of activities and inclinations, one can say that she’s has the in-born talent for singing. Unlike other children her age, by common observation they could hardly attune their voices to a song’s particular melody even with a musical accompaniment. But for Josephine, adjusting her voice’s flexibility to a song’s tune is as normal as any other child’s activities she’s engaged in and gradually attaining mastery of her chosen pieces.
What really happens to her, who in her days of popularity has unimaginable falls into the pit of utter desperation after savoring her crown of glory reap from her winning stints in major singing competitions? Josephine starts singing in public at the age of 5 at St. Joseph College. Always passing the first auditions in many amateur singing contests sponsors by different barangays of Tagnipa, Badiang, Lanao, Manhilo, Guadalupe, and Ibarra, she usually emerges as either a champion or a grand champion. She also marks her winning prowess in the neighboring town of Macrohon’s 2 barangays of Ilihan and Laray

Singing Competitions.
In 1993 at 10 years old, she was the grand champion in DYDM’s “Battle of Champion” and Tacloban’s DYVL station, maintaining a winning streak in a weekly, monthly and grand final during that year. At eleven and12 years old, she won a consecutive Grand Champion titles after defeating all those winners who participated in that 2 events. Josephine seems so insatiable with all her successes in the provincial and regional competitions. In all of the singing competitions she has participated in different places of the province and in region 8(Leyte and Samar), it is always her father Segundino F. Ramos, now 65, who is her personal chaperon.
At the age of 14 in Sept 1998, she decided to transfer to Sauyo National High School in Novaliches, Quezon City where her aunt resides with her family. Knowing the talent of her niece, she accompanies her for an audition at ABS-CBN’s KTV or Katunog Ng Voice. She passes. During the competition, she was asked by the host about her place. While other well-known personalities in this province who gain a niche in the field of music and in sports are somewhat reluctant to tell of their respective places, Ms.Ramos shamelessly told the audience that she is from brgy. Tagnipa, Maasin, Southern Leyte.(Equally proud of her roots, actress Jennylyn Mercado speaks with candor that she hails from Southern Leyte when asks about her reaction of a great catastrophe that hits brgy Guinsaugon, a farming village). In that particular contest, she became the Grand Champion with her rendition of Celin Dion’s song “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now”. She competes in this program relentlessly maintaining her position for 4 months from August up to the grand finals in November 1998.
At the age of 15 she became as representative of Sauyo National High School to the Marian Movement Singing Contest at the National Capital Region and emerged as the champion. Not long after that event, she joins the Red Cross Youth Super Camp Philippines held at Macario Peralta Janingdan in Capiz. As if lady Luck is always on her side, she becomes the champion in a vocal solo contest sponsored by the Red Cross sub-camp category. Later on she decided to transfer to another school at St. Francis Divine College where beauty titlist and actress Miriam Quiambao studies in the elementary. Still it is located within the vicinity of Novaliches, Q.C.There she graduated in high school in 2000.
Staying in Metro Manila for too long a period and away from her parents, she feels homesick. On her return to Maasin, she joins the Offbeat /band until the end of 2001.Another local popular singer who is her classmate, Hazel Año, now a licensed Civil Engineer, also joins.
In 2003 at the age of 19, she passed the audition in Search for the Star at GMA Channel 7 hosted by Regine Velasquez. While her singer-predecessor Sarah Geronimo, who is currently one of the popular singers in the country, was able to join the Search For The Star competition only after her third audition. But the Maasinhon Josephine has made it in just the first audition.

A Twist Of Fate
Unexpectedly however, not even a premonition or anticipation of some kind that her gradual rise to popularity of stardom would be snapped from a friend’s persuasion, whom she is not yet so familiar with, being new to her list of friends. How come? Josephine is friendly and can easily win friends, and in turn can easily be convinced
2

from a friend’s persuasion. One day, her mother, Genita Batistil Ramos, 49, a former stenographer at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of Southern Leyte.who resigned to take care of her daughter, says that according to Josephine, a Tagalog friend has given her Bangkok slimming pills. She says she accepts it without hesitation after her audition at GMA 7.She then starts taking the slimming pills but discontinue after 4 days because she feels bad like fast heartbeat and later a fever. Instead of reporting to GMA 7 studio on schedule for the contest, she goes to the hospital consulting a doctor. When the host of the Search for The Star knows about her condition thru a telephone call, she informs her that she can still join the next session. However, Josephine fails to make it.
Her parents brought her to Makati Medical Center where the doctor subjected her to MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scan in the laboratory. But the result of the MRI examination could not give the MMC doctor an exact diagnose of her sickness. The doctor refers her to Dr. Leonardo Fugoso of St. Luke Hospital where she undergoes Positron Emission Tomography (PET) examination. After reading the result, Dr. Fugoso could not also make a diagnosis. He refers the patient’s case to Dr. Jonas Francisco Santiago, Diplomat, American Board of Medicine who sends the PET result to an American Hospital connected with St. Luke Hospital. But still the American doctor could not arrive for an exact diagnose and therefore could not also prescribe medicine for Josephine.

MOA Signing

Dr. Fugoso suggests to Josephine and her parents that a Memorandum of Agreement will be signed by them giving him their consent that he be allowed to study Josephine’s disease. After signing the MOA for their affirmation, Dr. Fugoso starts giving her medicines for Parkinson’s disease for a period of 5 months. But before taking her medications, the patient would already twitch, says her mother. However, there’s no sign of improvement for her health despite the treatment. Instead her disease gets worst.
Her attending physician talks to her parents and reveals that their daughter has only 6 months to live.
The revelation strikes like a thunderbolt upon her mother’s ears. Grief and sorrow grips her heart and starts imploring fervently to the Almighty Creator to give her daughter a chance to live and heal her sickness. Then they decided to go home to Maasin. After a lapse of 4 months, they bring their daughter to Chong Hua Hospital in Cebu City. There they have met Dr.Florenz Eubil C. Bilocura, adult neurologist, who utilizes EEG (Electroencephalograph), a device that detects and records the electrical activity of the brain.(Electroencephalogram is the pattern traced by an Electroencephalograph).
They stay at the hospital for 12 days.

Refer To Manila Metropolitan Hospital
Dr. Bilocura, who now discovers the patient’s sickness, refers Josephine to Dr. Martha C.T. Lu-Bolañoso,a pediatric neurologist. The doctor informs her parents that Dr. Lu-Bolañoso is his senior and that Josephine’s disease is a child’s disease, so his senior is fit to handle their daughter’s case. How come that Josephine, the young singer has a child’s disease when in 2004 she is already 20 years old?
AT the Manila Metropolitan Hospital where Dr.Lu-Bolañoso is a resident physician, the patent undergoes another examination and stays there for 19 days. She was brought to the Philippine General Hospital where her new doctor subjected her to lumbar tap (spinal tap) which extracts brain fluid from a patient. The result of the laboratory exam conforms to that of Dr.Bilocura’s findings. The singer’s disease is diagnosed as Sub Acute Schlerosing Penencephalitis (SSPE).
Dr. LU-Bolañoso prescribes for Josephine 8 1V globuline vials for one dose (500mg) for 5 days. After the5-day regular vial injections her eyelids starts moving, can laugh, can smile, hear, but cannot speak. “Before her eyes would just stare, her eyelids motionless, after the 5- day injections the first voice I ever heard from her is a cry. When she strives to talk she could not form a word”, her mother says. When I was ushered by her mother Genita after the interview at their residence in brgy. Tagnipa,I called her.She seems to response, but I could not hear a sound of words. During the previous years when she was still active and in the pink of health, in some occasions I advised her to finish a four-year college course. I explained to her that it would be much better for her to finish a 4-year college course before she would concentrate on her carrier as a singer and that the right place for her exposure is Cebu and Manila.
The doctor also prescribes for her patient the following maintenance for lifetime medicines and multi-vitamins:1)Immunosin(500mg) 6 tablets a day;2)Iveret-500 with folic acid-once a day;3)Neurobion(500mg)once a day;4)Duphalac 120 ml.-2 tablespoon
2 x a day. Dr. Lu-Bolañoso further informs Genita that her daughter still has the sense of hearing, seeing, smelling and feeling. 3


Exhausted Financial Resource
The Ramoses have already exhausted all their financial resources. In some occasions, if Josephine can be left alone with her father Segundino F. Ramos, 65 years old, a former DPWH worker, or her aunt as watcher, her mother Genita would be selling okay-okay on credit for Josephine’s needed medicines. One day when Ron Woods, an American married to a Filipina here in Leyte, was at Lina Hermosilla’s okay-okay store, when Genita coincidentally was also there, the former was introduced by Lina to the latter. Ms .Hermosilla reveals to Mr. Woods that she (Genita) has a daughter who is a singer but is sick and needs help. She even adds to tell him that occasionally Genita would lend her some money for Josephine’s medicines.
Woods touched by the plight of the Ramos family contacted Mr. Mark Coombs, another American friend who is also married to a Filipina here. Coombs is a musician and a FM disc jockey in Texas, USA. They visited the Ramos residence in brgy, Tagnipa to see for themselves the pitiful condition of the sick singer. A recorded 10 songs of Ms. Ramos is played for the American visitors to listen to. This is courtesy of Cebu’s FM radio station where Josephine won in a singing competition. It is in that occasion that they conceived the idea of holding a ‘concert for a cause’. Local bands in Maasin were then informed about the plan. They have responded with willingness to participate in the upcoming concert knowing fully well that the affair will greatly help Josephine’s medications and further treatment.

Concert Time
The ‘concert for a cause’ was held recently at the city gymnasium. The recorded songs of Josephine were repeatedly played while sponsors and concertgoers were entering the gate. It was a night full of songs and music. Viper Music Production with its modern equipments has provided for the sounds. In contrast to the past concerts by local bands and other bands from Cebu sans the state-of-the–art equipments, Viper Music has delivered a balance volume of vocals and musical accompaniment to the pleasure and delight of the entire audience. Left and right bleachers were full of people composed of children, youngsters, adults and the old. Fourteen bands were scheduled to perform but only 6 have made it to a live performance at the stage.
Two child singers render one song each beautifully “Broken Vow” and “Habang May Buhay” at the start of the show.Joani Cristi Cepada with SJC kids did a song rendition and dance number. Another 2 local popular singers Brian Gilles and Hazel Año beautifully render a match duet “Ikaw Lamang Hanggang Ngayon”.Año, now a licensed Civil Engineer, reminisces her days with Ramos when they were both members-vocalists of the Offbeat band (2000-2001). She dedicates one of Josephine’s favorite songs by Celin Dion entitled “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now”. She claims that only her friend can sing it, but Año did it well with her inherent high pitch voice on a par with Josephine’s.
Janice B. Ramos, younger sister of the sick singer, also dedicates a song coming from her sister’s favorite singer Celin Dion.Wheelchaired Josephine was brought by several men upstage where the former sings infront of the latter. Emotions start throbbing when Janice kisses her sister as tears runs down her checks. Touching moment intrudes the air for awhile and the audience gives applause.

Sixtenz band composed of SJC students covers some of Alanis Moresette hits, while the Trendsonic belts out some of Asin’s and Aegis hits. The songs renditions were a type of rock, love songs, ballads, rapping and reggae. Other bands doing live performances were the Recykool, Hybrid Monkees, Yawtakis and Tribu Latagaw who does a comic acts to the laughter of the crowd.
However, the night of music was unexpectedly disrupted when a drunken man throws a chair towards the youngsters’ side and shouts to stop the show, according to a witness. Instead of negatively reacting, he says, the youngsters and young men around just kept their cool in deference to him who is well-known in the religious circle. One of the witnesses, an Engineer, says that he accosts and pacifies the man, advises him to go home and he did. During that time at past 1:00 a.m., he says, there’s no policeman around. The American host Mark Coombs gets hungry and decides to stop the show.
Nevertheless, the trouble does not affect the purpose of the concert for a cause: The proceeds will be used for the further treatment of Josephine in Manila to see if she can still be cured of her debilitating disease, proclaims Mr. Coombs.
Weakens The Immune System
Earlier in Manila, the pediatric neurologist explains to Josephine’s mother that the Bangkok slimming pills given by a Tagalog friend to her daughter in Manila, which the latter has taken it for 4 days, have weakened her immune system. “It triggers in the reawakening of the measles’ viruses that remain inactive when Josephine’s immune system sustains a strong resistance”, Genita quoted the doctor as saying.
With this new information which the doctor has revealed, it would be better now for everybody, particularly those figure-conscious women to be meticulously cautious if a new friend or any new acquaintance would introduce them and sweet-talk them to take any kind of sliming pills or slimming tea. Is it not a common
4


knowledge from the late Julie de Vega’s fans that she was reportedly taking slimming pills during her popularity days as a showbiz actress? Taking medically safe slimming pills might be proper for de Vega’s body size because she was really fat. But, is the kind of slimming pills that she was taken, a safe one? Is it herbs produced into pills or tablets? However, before taking it too long of her slimming pills, she got sick. It was diagnosed by a doctor as pneumonia which caused her early death. Is there not a probability that her taking of slimming pills has also weakened her immune system so that her body could no longer resist death-causing viruses? I also have a relative who was a figure-conscious woman and was taking slimming tea. It did not take too long for her that she also got sick. The manifestation of her symptoms under my personal observation and analysis is that her taking of that slimming tea has caused a disruption of the normal function of her immune system.

Be Cautious With Slimming Pills
If either a fat woman or a woman with normal body size is dead serious in reducing her body size she should choose and adapt the natural way. For instance, if she eats 2 cups of rice in every meal and consume 2 pieces of common sliced meat everyday, she should reduce it to half. But she should regularly eat plenty of vegetables and fruits and have a daily exercise. If her body will not reduce in size after three months, cut the consumption into half of the volume. If still this kind of body size reduction will not work, reduce your eating once more. If despite of these 3 practical reduction procedure your body still will not respond, forget about body reduction regimen. Really if you are determine to reduce your not-so-fat body into a cola-cola body, try what my friend was doing. Her approach in reducing her not-so-fat body size is done in a natural way, sans taking any kind of slimming pill or slimming tea. She reduced a third part of her daily food consumption and sleep at 9:00p.m. Waking up at 5:00 a.m. she started to jog for 2 kilometers and climbed up the long stairs at the Virgin Mary Shrine located atop the provincial hospital of Maasin City. She did this kind of exercise 5 days a week regularly. After two months her body has started to reduce until she has achieved her target.
Furthermore, never be duped into believing from anyone who is not a health professional in convincing you to take any kind of slimming pills. Remember what happens to Josephine B. Ramos, a young promising singer who has the great chance of becoming a professional singer. Yet her destiny and fortune was snapped from taking a misguided advice from a new friend, who probably lacks the proper knowledge about the slimming pills that she has introduced to her friend. Or is she a deceiver, out to deceive and mislead the gullible and vulnerable people? Since the time she has given Josephine the Bangkok slimming pills, that Tagalog friend of hers did not show up anymore, her mother says.
In spite of all these things that happens to her, Josephine and her parents are still hopeful that by the mercy of the Almighty Father, the Great Physician, thru the instrumentality of a specialist, she will miraculously be healed in the days to come.. With the realization of Josephine’s dream as a local popular singer in the past years, she can still starts anew to reach for the Stars.(This feature story was written during the fourth quarter of 2008.Quirico M. Gorpido, Jr.)