THE PRICE OF BEAUTY

“I trusted her [when she said, Vicky Belo] the procedure was safe and would give me a permanent round butt but instead, I narrowly escaped death,”

Filipinos are pretty much concerned about physical assets. Vanity is a multi billion dollar industry that a lot of business people found their gold preying over the people's inferiority complex towards their physical attributes.

From applying the skin burning astringent to the extremes of making their bodies relyeno (stuffed fish) like (being cut, filled up and sew), nothing can stop these people for their dream of enhancing their faces and bodies. Others even expect to change their whole face totally patterning their facial changes to their favorite artistas (celebrities, especially showbiz).


At this moment, the process of having surgery operation done into someone's body for aesthetic purposes is being accepted as if its just like personal grooming or applying a make-up.


These producers pretty much done miracles that in the past what we consider as magic (transfiguration, just like in the movie Blusang Itim) are now pretty much available in reality. Someone who was a beast can magically be transformed into a beauty that is comparable to a painting done by an artist as his masterpiece.


Even government agencies of the national level have been mesmerized by the promise of cosmetic surgery. Department of Health is so lenient on approving, or if not, at least giving this new industry a laissez faire status. More so, the Department of Tourism wanted to project this industry as an attraction for foreigners and balik bayans (Filipono expats abroad) who are visiting the county. Procedures creating miracles that can be bought cheaply (relatively) by their foreign money.

But what is the implication of the millions of pesos worth of advertisement mileages that these doctors of beauty are paying for.

Recently, news papers and televisions have made a headline out of a cosmetic surgery patient who had undergone a procedure that was projected to be safe.

Josefina Rocio, a forty year old business woman, appeared on our TV screens crying over the circumstances she had undergone.


Years ago, as she related, she'd been attracted on what she saw over what was done on the butt of the actress and controversial figure Rosanna Roces. She had the procedure done to her twice, first is the original one, and a second one after two years to correct the non-proportional size of her left and right butts due to the first operation.


This year, she has been hospitalized due to the infection caused by the procedures. She had several operations already in an effort to remove the puss and the substance that has been injected to her. She already paid more than 3 million Pesos on hospital bills because of the infection.

Experts are pointing at hydrogel and the way it has been injected as possible culprits.

Hydrogel has been banned in many countries in Europe and doesn't even have the approval of the US Food and Drug Administration. Even the organization, Belo Med Group, who performed the procedure to Rocio is not using the said substance anymore.

The way the procedure has been done can also be a possible reason especially these days that a lot of things have been exposed about the cosmetic surgery industry making the people and the authorities question the qualifications of the people involve on giving such procedures.


We are realizing that these magic are too good to be true but we cannot blame ourselves to believe these doctors magic wand when we see pictures like this:

before

after

Its Buratong, the recently convicted shabu tiyangge (prohibited drugs market) owner.

Look at how his rhinoplasty was done. See the before and after?


That really is a miracle....