Describing herself as a non-artist painter, a former grade school classmate of ours whose friendship with us has not waned after we parted ways as students, Adelina Cuison – Royo says she makes quarantine bearable by painting.
Boredom is something people in Enhanced Community Quarantine complain about, but for a busy retiree like her who is currently an Interim Member of the Regulatory Board for Pharmacy of the Professional Regulations Commission (PRC), and has served as Chair of the Board from 2015 to 2018. A Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), the highest norm confirmed for leadership and communication by Toastmasters International, a worldwide educational organization on Leadership and Communication based in LA, USA. We could go on and on with her awards and achievements but we will save that for the next time we do a feature about her. She served as President and district Director of Soroptimist International and was awarded as Outstanding President after her term.
Deling, who is in quarantine at her farm in Barrio Kimamon Tibal-og Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte, enjoys the company of her grandchildren Mischael “Misoy” Carl Salvador and Miguel “Mico” Francisco. She misses her granddaughter Anna “Mika” Michaela who is in Florida, USA.
For Deling, boredom is far from what she feels in her farm in Tibal-og. Her credentials are something we admire for a classmate who became First Lady of Mayor Salvador Royo of the Municipality of Sto. Tomas, Davao del Norte. Salvador R. Royo MD a medical doctor turned farmer because he was an only child ! He became a barangay captain of our barrio Kimamon, Sto Tomas then became Mayor of Sto Tomas n 1998, later he became a board member of Davao del Norte where he was dubbed as the Jusn Flavier of the province when featured in the provincial gazette.
She finished her PhD in Organizational Development at Southeast Asia Interdisciplinary Institute (SAIDI) in Manila; Masters in Science in Pharmacy at PWU Manila. She finished her High School and College Education at the Immaculate Conception College, now University of the Immaculate Conception in Davao City.
Being a Pharmacist by profession, she opened a drugstore, Botica Adesa, at the corner of Bonifacio St. and Quezon Boulevard from 1970 until 1993, worked as a Pharmacy Educator from 1968 to 2011, serving as Pharmacy Dean at UIC for ten years – 1983-1993. She was a founding Pharmacy Dean of San Pedro College for fifteen years. Both schools were top-performing schools of Pharmacy in the Philippines when she worked as the dean up to the present.
Sharing her opinion on the life she now experiences with the quarantine imposed by the Regional Task Force because of Covid 19’s threat on our lives, Deling says “Quarantine to me is an unfortunate consequence worldwide of a disaster that affects everyone that must be implemented no matter how difficult for the greater good. It is difficult to surrender our freedom to freely move about and socialize. No genius of a leader can do this alone, no government is stable enough! We must cooperate.”
She continues: “I have lived an amazing life. By God’s grace I had the opportunity to have experienced the security, love and support of family and friends. The ultimate happiness of falling in love and the excruciating pain of the loss of love ones. I have lived life to the fullest. Still, I feel so blessed and grateful that I am still alive and experiencing quarantine as an opportunity to slow down and reflect on the faithfulness of my God, and truly appreciate the blessings of having a patch of the earth where I am able to plant and grow fruit trees, veggies, flowers and many more. Most of all, I am thankful that I can do my part in helping others to survive with what I can share.”
