THE entire adult life of Dr. Eduardo “Eddie” del Rosario has been dedicated to humanitarian services impacting literally hundreds of thousands people from different regions of the world. A native of San Jose, Nueva Ecija, Dr. Eddie finished his Medicine course from the University of Santo Tomas in 1958, and completed his Masters in Public Health Degree from John Hopskins University School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland in 1977.
He then lived in Guam where he served the community and the government. He was the Chief Public Officer of Guam and then became the Executive Director of Guam Advocacy Office which promote, protect and advocate for the rights of the disabled.
From 1966 to 1980, at various locations in the Philippines, South Vietnam, Guam, Seattle, Alaska and other regions, Dr. Eddie del Rosario has directed, assisted, and actively participated in medical and public health relief for thousands of unfortunate victims of man-made and natural disasters. He was in South Vietnam with the Operation World Freedom to assist the war victims right in the midst of the start of the infamous surged of the North against the South, the Tet Offensive of February 6, 1968; he provided medical aid and comfort to the disaster victims of the typhoons, the floods, the tidal waves and earthquake in the Philippines and Guam.
Dr. del Rosario spent countless sleepless nights assisting in caring for the Air Manila plane crash disaster in Guam. In August 1972 while vacationing in the Philippines, the worst flood occurred in Luzon. Interrupting his well-deserved earned rest, he personally conducted and organized medical civic action program with staff and students from Ateneo University and Assumption College in Manila to assist the hundreds of thousands victims in Pampanga, Tarlac and Bulacan region. He introduced the jet gun in the Philippines, which he borrowed from the Guam Department of Health for mass immunization delivering an estimated 30 thousand dosages of cholera-dysentery-typhoid vaccines.
Returning back to Guam, where he was then the Chief Public Health Officer, he assisted in organizing a Guam delegation to turn over to the Philippine Government over $100,000 worth of relief goods including nine jet guns for mass immunization, all in less than 30 days. And the borrowed jet gun was also donated later to the RP Government.
Dr. del Rosario and his group from Guam immunized more than 40,000 school children around Paranaque, old Makati, Tondo and Santa Rita, Pampanga.
One week after the burning of Jolo in 1975, Dr. del Rosario participated in six medical missions providing medical aid and care to people of Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, Zamboanga and Misamis impacting between 40 to 50 thousand people. In 1980, he personally organized and conducted relief and medical civic action activities for the flood victims of Nueva Ecija and Tarlac.
“Dr. del Rosario is a one-man crusader when it comes to helping people -- more, specially victims of disasters in the Philippines,” stated one of the thirty Filipino doctors in Guam. “He goes out of his way to help - no charge. Everything at his expense.”
Impatient when bureaucracy is involved, two days after the great earthquakes, he delivered $10,000 cash to the Bishop of Cabanatuan, to the Bishop of Nueva Ecija and to Jaime Cardinal Sin representing initial contribution from Guam. Together with other Guam Fil-Am leaders, they raised the largest disaster relief funds amounting to more than $100,000 cash.
In the Mt. Pinatubo disaster, while other medical missioners from various parts of the world, including the United States, were in the comfort zones and away from the poisonous gas being erupted by the then raging volcano, Dr. del Rosario and Dr. Hugo H. Halo, a 1992 TOFA awardee, together with Subic Bay US Naval Hospital personnel trekked to the foot of Mt. Pinatubo to provide treatment and care to around 500 survivors.
“My greatest dream is to organize or be involved actively with an international relief organization that would be able to respond at a moment’s notice to any natural or man-made disaster to relieve pain and suffering and to provide the greatest good for the greatest number,” remarked Dr. del Rosario once in an interview.
Dr. Eddie was very active with various groups in Guam. He served as President of the Filipino Community of Guam, President of the UST Alumni Association, an active member of the Circulo Pampangueno, Lions Club, Kiwanis International, Guam TB & RD Association, Novo Ecijanos, Knights of Columbus, Cursillos de Cristianidad, American Red Cross, American Public Health Association and others.
Some people have a moral compass, but Dr. Eddie had moral GPS. He didn’t just know what was right or wrong, he dedicated his life to fixing all that he saw that was wrong. He was a humanitarian who served those in need in Alaska, the Philippines, Vietnam, Guam, and the CNMI among other places. He devoted a lot of effort and time to ensure that the foreign contract workers in Guam had justice and fair treatment. Dr. Eddie also worked to get benefits for Filipino WWII veterans and to get Medicare claims accepted in the Philippines.He led the Asian Community of Guam in writing a resolution denouncing the treatment of the foreign contract workers. It ended up in the Halls of Congress in Washington, DC and helped to advance the cause.
A few months ago, while he was in Manila working on one of his causes, Dr. Eddie suffered a massive stroke and passed away in Makati Medical Center on July 6, 2010.
He left behind his wife, the former Maribel Bernardo of Bacoor, Pampanga,four children: Marissa, Regina, Cristina, and Margarita, and several grandchildren.
People who know Eddie say he was one in a million, truly pure-hearted,selfless and wise. During his life he touched thousands of lives with his generous heart and joyful demeanor. Indeed, his was a life well-lived.
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