Punzi's Corner Blog

This is an article written by co-workers of my best friend, to seek financial assistance on his behalf. While I intend to recirculate this to my own network of friends and colleagues, maybe one of you can help as well:

Last October 12, 2006, one of our lawyers, Jason Christopher R. Co, (36 years old) had a myocardial infarction, more commonly known as heart attack. The attack was severe enough to confine him at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Coronary Care Unit (CCU) at the Davao Doctors’ Hospital for four (4) days. He was finally released from the hospital on October 20, after the doctors managed the attack.

The next step after managing the attack is to make “repairs” on the heart. Jason will be undergoing an angiogram operation sometime in early November to find out the extent of damage. Thereafter, he will be undergoing bypass surgery in order to ensure that the blood flow in and out of his heart is unobstructed, despite the clogged arteries.

As friends and colleagues of Jason, we seek your help.

Without any help from family, friends and colleagues, there is no way that Jason will have the angiogram and the bypass surgery.

Despite having a growing family with three (3) young children, Jason has unselfishly dedicated his life to developmental lawyering, finding his calling in the latter. He has been working at our NGO, SALIGAN, for the past ten (10) years, starting out as a legal researcher while still a law student. When he graduated and passed the bar in 2000, he continued to work as a developmental lawyer in SALIGAN, despite the many opportunities for more lucrative jobs elsewhere.

Most of the 10 years of his work was devoted to the urban poor, providing legal literacy, representation in courts and quasi-judicial bodies, doing research and developing materials, and lobbying for pro-poor policies in decision-making bodies such as Congress
and local sanggunians.

In early 2005, Jason brought his family to Davao City, where he continued to work with the Mindanao Branch of SALIGAN, as well as with the Homeless Peoples Federation of the Philippines (HPFP).

For those of us who believe that another world is possible because of people like Jason who relentlessly work for the empowerment of the poor and marginalized, let us take this occasion not only as a opportunity to support a friend and a comrade, but also that dream for a more just and peaceful world.

We hope you can pray with us for the improvement of Jason’s health. We also welcome financial and other forms of support. Needless to say, the relatively meager income that Jason derives as an NGO worker is not sufficient for him to rake in savings, even for something as basic as his health.

The bypass operation is estimated to cost P500,000.00, and the angiogram, P50,000.00, definitely beyond the means of a development worker... We therefore implore you for support by any means.

Please help us allow Atty. Jason Co to extend his life so he can continue to enhance others'. Just contact me if you can extend any form of assistance.