President Benigno Aquino praises Billy Esposo’s maiden book

Jumbo Editorial Team

The Philippine Star columnist, Billy Esposo, was all smiles during the launch of his book ‘Surviving Chronic Kidney Disease: The Billy Esposo Kidney Diaries’ at the Powerbooks in Greenbelt 4, Makati City, on August 17.

The book is a collection of Esposo’s notes starting from when he was diagnosed with chronic renal disease in 1999. The ninety-four journal entries cover a span of twenty-eight months of hemodialysis and kidney transplant. 

The triumphant smile on his face during the graceful ceremony told the story. He has not only written and published his very first book besides launching it he had reasons to feel elated for having dealt with a disease that’s considered one of the leading causes of mortality in the Philippines. 

The presence of President Benigno S Aquino III, who described Esposo’s book as a good weapon to help Filipinos who have the same illness, earned enormous grace to the occasion.

“I’m sure that this book will find its way into the shelves of many nephrologists and become a useful resource for many of our countrymen. This book might come as a surprise especially as it gives an account of not only the physical trials, the terror of cyberspace he had to endure but also the spiritual and emotional trials that came with it,” the President declared. 

The President praised Esposo for attacking the problem of chronic kidney disease (CKD) from a different angle by making sense of the suffering and illness without compromising the painful realities of the disease, thus encouraging other sufferers not to give up. 

 “I’m certain and I speak for everyone when I say that we are all glad to be here today. Twelve years after he began his dialysis treatments to celebrate a milestone in both the health and career of a good friend and perhaps even a milestone for all others who continue to battle this disease,” the President added.

In his famous column ‘As I Wreck This Chair’ Esposo stated that many of his friends were surprised that his very first book had delved on a subject matter that he hardly has a mastery of except to suffer from it. 

“They had expected me to write on my experience in the 1986 Cory Aquino Media Bureau during the Snap Presidential Campaign, or my insights into the untold and little known true history of our country, or explosive political inside stories, or the dynamics of geopolitics that are prodding the Chinese invasion,” he wrote.