WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Adelo P. Daroy

TOP PHOTO: Adelo’s daughter Adea Mari, wife Estela, and Adelo
MIDDLE: Daughters Adea Mari and Adea Estela
BOTTOM: Masskara festival in Bacolod City, the City of Smiles, and the cleanest and greenest highly urbanized city in the Philippines (photo credit: Bacolod City official website). FOR A LARGER IMAGE, CLICK ON PHOTO.

ADELO P. DAROY and his wife, Estela live in Bacolod City, the capital and largest city of Negros Occidental, Philippines. After graduation from the UPCVM, Adelo joined the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI). Dr. Salvador Escudero III, then BAI director and concurrent UPCVM dean assigned Adelo to a position in the Office of the Provincial Veterinarian in Negros Occidental. In 1980, Adelo assumed the post of City Veterinarian of Bacolod City. Estela is a registered public health nurse in the Department of Education of Bacolod City, also known as the “City of Smiles”. Adelo and Estela are blessed with two reasons to smile about, their daughters who now reside and work in the United States. Adea Estela, who they fondly call “Langga,” is an OR nurse at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), while her younger sister Adea Mari (“Ging-ging”) who placed second in the Philippine occupational therapist licensure examination in 2003, works in New York. Both of them live in New Jersey.

Q and A with Dr. Daroy

Q: What do you consider the most challenging aspect of your job?
A: As city vet, I take direct supervision and control of the City Veterinary Office. I make plans and implement programs on veterinary public health, animal health, livestock production and slaughterhouse operation. I have 66 personnel under my direct supervision and control. Remember Dr. Primitivo Baluyut? After graduation, upon knowing that I am joining government service, he tapped me on the shoulder and said: “Bata, if you cannot defeat them, join them.” Of course I knew what he meant, aware of the glaring culture of corruption in government. Humbly, I replied, “Sir, if I cannot defeat them, I will retreat.” The most challenging aspect of my job is not to get things done but to live up to the expectation that public office is a public trust and that it must be performed with utmost honesty and integrity. By the grace of God, here I am still standing with head held up. However, I am now seriously thinking of “retreating” after 26 years of government service.

Q: And the most gratifying experience in your job?
A: My most rewarding experience is when people tell me that I am a blessing to our government. To them I humbly reply, “to God be the glory.” In 2002, I received the “Outstanding City Government Department Head” award from the Rotary Club of Bacolod and the City Government.

Q: What are the most common animal diseases in your city?
A: The usual diseases we encounter in the field are hemorrhagic septicemia and fascioliasis in cattle and carabao, hog cholera, scouring PRDC, enzootic pneumonia and parasitism in swine, and NCD, fowl cholera, ILT, CRD and fowl pox in poultry.

Q: When you’re not working, what do you do in your leisure time?
A: There are only 3 places where I spend my time at: home, office or church. If I’m not at the office or church, I am most likely at home doing household chores, reading, or watching TV or video.

Q: If you were given an opportunity to have dinner and visit with one former classmate or mentor from the UPCVM, who would you pick and why?
A: Former classmate? Rico Flores...because he has been a friend and a brother to me. As for a former mentor, I’d pick Dr. Escudero, so I can thank him personally for the BAI fellowship grant. Without it, I wouldn’t have been your batchmate.