The medical students went to the municipality of Loon and had a courtesy call with Mayor Lloyd Peter Lopez. The mayor was also a practicing physician before going into government service. He informed us that there were no major health problems in Loon except for the increasing population in the area which might generate health issues in the near future. The group asked if the mayor still practices his profession of being a physician and told us that the law the does not allow him to practice his previous profession, but it does not stop him to help those in need of a doctor when there is none.
The group then went atop a hill in Loon to visit the Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) processing plant which was also a source of livelihood for the women of Loon. The women who worked at the plant also teach other women to make VCO at their own home. They attested to the efficacy of VCO in lowering blood pressure and treating burns.
They then proceeded to the learning center of the United Women of Loon and had an orientation about the different herbal plants being processed as alternative medicines. This was a house where the women stored drums of fermented coconut vinegar and bottles of mother tincture of different herbal plants. There was a process/ritual of making each mother tincture of herbal plants. These mother tinctures were the essence for making different dilutions of herbal medications, each herbal medication with a definite amount of dilution with gin which was a cure for a number of ailments.
