Columnist Fely Sicam Writes a Letter to her editors: ‘This Character Assassination is Becoming a Nightmare’

Columnist Fely V. Sicam finally expressed her opinion on her bashers in a letter addressed to her editors published on July 24, 2015 in The Mindanao Times. Sicam stated that the negative attention her article generated was nothing short of a nightmare.

On July 20, 2015 netizen Titus Abrasax posted a photo of Sicam’s article entitled “Are resident doctors really doctors?” In the article, Sicam relayed her experience in a government hospital where she waited for an hour for her friend to be attended to and where the medical staff were rude to her. She said the medical staff who attended to her did not speak English at all and she questioned the quality of medical practitioners in the country. She said that if the kind of service government hospitals have was similar to the hospital where her friend was, 90-99% of the patients brought in the Emergency Rooms would die because of inhumane treatment.

Sicam also said that there should also be a probe among the doctors who believe they are doctors because they are called “resident” doctors. She finally called out to Senator Miriam Santiago’s office to visit public hospitals to know what people have to deal with. Sicam’s last statement in the article was, “YOU WILL BE SHOCKED AT THE DISMAL SITUATION AND CONDITIONS OF THE PATIENTS!!”

Sicam’s article went viral which gathered mostly negative comments both from the medical and non-medical fields.

An Internist responds to Sicam in an open letter

On the same day that Abrasax’s photo of Sicam’s column went viral, Dr. Louie Jon Enerva, an internist, posted an open letter on Facebook to answer Sicam’s article. Dr. Enerva answered Sicam’s question by saying that resident doctors are qualified board passers who underwent rigorous training and practice before they were allowed to become resident physicians. Dr. Enerva also said that doctors in government hospitals need not speak English if they are speaking to locals. He also mentioned how Sicam was arrogant in questioning the medical staff, which may be the reason she was treated with disrespect.  He also questioned Sicam’s article for not stating her entire experience and not doing any research before writing her article. He then asked in his letter, “Do ‘REAL JOURNALISTS’ get qualifying examinations before they get to write these columns?”

Dr. Enerva ended his letter with a sarcastic postscript. “P.S. im speaking in english that must mean im a real doctor? (sic)”

Dr. Enerva’s post also went viral and currently has over 6,000 shares.

Sicam finally responds to her bashers

On July 25, 2015, Abrasax then posted a photo of Sicam’s letter to the editors posted in The Mindanao Times where the latter stated that her character assassination on social media is now becoming a nightmare.

Sicam said she first got wind of the furor on Facebook after her daughter called her up to scold her for the column. She stated how she struggled to find cellphone load in order to call her editor and how she needed to commute from Tanay to Antipolo City just to find an internet shop to check her Facebook account. She mentioned that her account did not even have the copy of her article and that she wonders who the mysterious Facebook user who posted her article was and that what the person did was “unfair.”

Sicam then ended her letter saying that she hopes that everything will turn out right and how she appreciates her editor’s decision to print both negative and positive comments regarding her article.

“I very much appreciate your support and good decision for the sake and truth of humanity,” her letter stated.