And you'll still make her senator?

"WE WERE sent here to look out for our fellow Americans in the same way they look out for one another every single day, usually without fanfare all across the country.

"We should follow the example of a New York City nurse named Menchu Sanchez. When Hurricane Sandy plunged her hospital into darkness, she wasn't thinking about how her own home was faring. Her mind was on the 20 precious newborns in her care and the rescue plan she devised that kept them all safe."

Thus immortalized US President Barack Obama in his State of the Union Address the Filipina nurse at New York University's Langone Medical Center.

Seated in the viewing box with First Lady Michelle Obama, Sanchez occupied a place of honor reserved for "extraordinary Americans who exemplify the themes and ideals laid out in the State of the Union Address."

By honouring Sanchez, Obama in effect elevated to the high pedestal of honor, indeed of heroism, all Filipina nurses.

Really now, what greater accolade can ever come upon our nurses than that given by the President of the most powerful nation on Earth?

Inversely now, what worse damnation can ever come upon our nurses than that spat upon by one of our own?

Yeah, methinks now: Like the prophets of yore, nurses are not honoured in their own country.

Rather, not honoured by their lawmakers.

Or to be most specific, verily dishonoured by senatorial wannabe and once congresswoman Cynthia Villar.

Gone viral now, getting millions of hits is the Team PNoy’s bet’s stand in the Pagsubok sa mga Kandidato aired over GMA 7, to wit:

“…Actually, hindi naman kailangan ang nurse ay matapos ng BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing), kasi itong ating mga nurses, gusto lang nilang maging ‘room nurse.’ Sa America or sa other countries, ano lang sila, yung parang mag-aalaga. Hindi naman sila kailangan ganoon kagaling…”

Gone viral now too, is the universal backlash, with Villar getting millions of hits – in the head. Rightly so.

“Room Nurse.” Is that what RN has come to mean? To be “mere” caregivers requires neither a nursing degree nor even some rudimentary skill. That is how abysmal is Villar’s (dis)regard of our nurses.

No explanation, no rationalization can provide any justification for Villar’s condescension, aye, for Villar’s damnation of the Filipino nurse, reduced as she/he was to the dumb stereotype only the highhandedness, haughtiness, indeed, arrogance of a power-drunk egoist could conjure.

And no amount of apology could salve the pain of the humiliation inflicted by Villar on all Filipino nurses.

And she wants to be senator?

Says a nurse taking care of mental patients: Actually, hindi naman kailangan ang senador ay may utak, kasi itong ating mga senador gusto lang nilang matawag ng ‘honorable.’ Ano lang sila, yung parang mag-aastang may laman ang ulo. Hindi naman sila kailangan ganoon kagaling…”    

And we still ask what’s happening to this country?