SAN FABIAN, Pangasinan?Every year for the last 30 years, Dr. Guillermo de Venecia, a Filipino-American ophthalmologist practicing in the United States, would quietly slip into the country.

There are no announcements or fanfare attending his arrival, but he always creates a stir among poor people needing eye operations, most of them with cataract problems.

De Venecia has helped restore the vision of poor patients who cannot afford costly medical procedures.

They would flock to his outpatient surgical center in Barangay Bolasi here, which looks like a vacation house by the river. This is where De Venecia, 78, yearly brings a team of American and Filipino surgeons, nurses and volunteers to perform eye surgeries on indigent patients.

The Wisconsin-based De Venecia heads Free Rural Eye Clinic (FREC) team that has, so far, restored the vision of 25,000 indigents from Pangasinan and nearby provinces.

He stays in the country six months every year, coming in November or December when he starts checking patients. Operations are done between January and June.

This year, 900 people afflicted with cataract were able to see because of De Venecia?s efforts. The surgical team this year included Doctors Ed Zobian, Cu Yuging, Robert Sullivan and Ben Castillo. The medical and academic staff of the University of Santo Tomas (UST), led by Dr. Antonio Sayalso, assisted the team.

Occasionally, some patients would bring vegetables and fruits to show gratitude to the volunteer doctors for restoring their vision.

The FREC, De Venecia said, strictly adheres to the policy of serving ?indigents only.?

?The guiding principle is simple: If you can afford to pay but you come here for the operation, you are taking away an opportunity for a free surgery from somebody who needed the operation but who cannot afford it,? he said.

De Venecia, a recipient of the Outstanding Humanitarian Service Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology, established the outpatient surgical center here in 2000 through the help of his American patients and neighbors in the United States.

Before the clinic was established, De Venecia?s team would go to government hospitals in different towns and perform the 45-minute surgery.

De Venecia, who took his ophthalmology residency at the University of Wisconsin after earning his degree in medicine from the UST in 1956, said he gains more satisfaction from reviving the sight of indigent folks.

?With the education and knowledge I was fortunate to receive, I felt it was my duty to help my fellow [Filipinos],? he said.