By any standard, our national hero, Jose Rizal, is one of the most interesting, brilliant, enigmatic, charismatic, and controversial figures in history. There seems to be always something new to discover about him and debates around him prevail to this day. It is no wonder, therefore, that this year 2011, the 150th anniversary of his birth, almost every columnist, every commentator, every radio and television station, has had something to say about some special “little known” facts about our national hero. During the past year, there had been numerous reports in all forms of media about Rizal as sportsman and excellent student, as someone who had prophetic dreams, as a world traveler, a romantic, an artist, a political activist, as polyglot who spoke 22 languages and dialects, and of course, as a writer and martyr. Even topics as mundane as where he tied his horse when he visited his childhood sweetheart have generated interest. The list goes on and on.
Ophthalmologists

Professor Salvador Salceda described the history of Philippine eye banking as “a fascinating if not frustrating one”. This is evident in his Geminiano de Ocampo Medical Research Foundation Centennial Lecture where he traced the ebb and flow of Philippine eye banking from 1948 until the birth of the Eye Bank Foundation of the Philippines in 1994 and the start of operations of its Medical Eye Bank in 1995.1 The story of Philippine eye banking remains a fascinating one, but it has fortunately also been blessed with many moments of success and satisfaction even while still laden with frustration. In an editorial about the Eye Bank in 2005, I wrote that “while the achievements after ten years of operations can be considered a success story, we have really only started to plant the seeds”.2 And now, thirty years hence, after the COVID-19 pandemic that saw the number of cornea retrieval procedures plunge throughout the world, I believe we are starting to reap the harvest from the seeds planted throughout the last three decades.
Eye Banks