NAGA CITY -- Patrick Perky, district manager of pharmaceutical company Astra Zeneca in Northern California, one of the 30 non-Filipino-Americans joining the medical mission of Philippine Medical Society of Northern California (PMSNC), expressed reverence of being with Filipinos here and in Los Angeles, California, where he lives.

Photo Caption: UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE: A mixed race of citizens from North California are mesmerized by the performance of elementary grade musicians from Cuerdas de Naga rendering the Bicol folksong “Sarong Banggi” at Raul S. Roco Library.

        Through involvement in the activities of the PMSNC, Perky associates with Filipino-Americans in Northern California and even learned to love Filipino cuisine.

Photo Caption: FACE OF POVERTY: Attentively listening to the medical instructions, a poor woman personifies the typical poor constituents who could only receive free medical services during medical missions.

        “I love the Filipinos. They are the best people I’ve met,” he declared unabashedly. He volunteered to file holiday leave to join the medical mission here for the first time.

        Dr. Kevin Colton, finding fulfillment serving indigent Filipino patients, continuously participates in the yearly medical mission to the Philippines the PMSNC conducts.

        For the past seven years, he has been giving medical instructions to indigents. With the help of a Filipino-American doctor who interprets for him, the Caucasian-American doctor devised communication system that included quick demonstration of what to do and simple instructions.

        Through the city government and participation of Bicol Medical Center and Ago Foundation Hospital, the PMSNC annual medical mission to the Philippines was organized and started on Monday here through Friday with 300 medical professionals and volunteers from Northern California, targeting to give medical services to some 10,000 poor patients from Naga City.

        The company manager enjoyed sharing his first community immersion experience when he decided to walk alone, one hour each to southern, northern and western directions of the city. He observed the same warm qualities of Filipinos in California and the ones he met on the streets of this city.

        Perky said Astra Zeneca has contributed to this year’s mission some $40,000 worth of medicine and for the past 10 years it had been significantly contributed medicines for cardiovascular and gastrointestinal ailments.

        The PMSNC, an organization of Filipino-American doctors, since its first medical mission in 1972 in the Masbate island-province has already served more than 100,000 patients in several cities and provinces in the Philippines.

        Perky said he was drawn to the Filipinos in the Bay Area through Dr. Carmelo Roco, a past president of the PMSNC, a practicing doctor in California, that the latter described as a “caring doctor” with overflowing patients.

        “He works hard and touches his patients. He attends to patients even on holidays and you can see long line of patients in his clinic,” the company manager said, and added: “He is a great man.”

        Perky said that he was happy he found out on his own during his walk around Naga City the same warm qualities of Filipino-Americans and the locals here.

        “I will definitely come back to the Philippines in next year’s mission,” he declared.

        Roco migrated to the US after Edsa uprising in 1986, did several jobs until he passed the licensure examination for doctors in California and started a private clinic in the Bay Area in 1992 until he petitioned his wife, a nurse, and three kids to live with him in California.

        “It’s really hard work. The respect to the fields of profession are the same;”