Pulilan Celebeer Festival to raise money for surgery of conjoined twins

A beer festival is being organized to help separate conjugal twins Klea Ann and Maurice Ann Misa. Photo by Carmela Reyes-Estrope

PULILAN, Bulacan — The municipal government and beverage giant San Miguel Corporation are gathering 10,000 people to a beer festival on Oct. 6 to raise money for the surgery of four-month-old conjoined twins Klea Ann and Maurice Ann Misa.

The money to be generated by the “Pulilan Celebeer Festival” would help finance the separation of the twins, who were born on May 24 with their skulls fused together, according to the Pulilan Business Council which developed the project.

“We were told they needed three surgeries. I hope we can begin because the babies have been sickly,” said the twin’s 28-year-old mother, Maricel Villaluz Misa of Barangay Poblacion.

Klea Ann is suffering from pneumonia while Maurice Ann has a kidney ailment, so doctors would need to treat these diseases first before they undergo the operations, said Wilbert Eleria, Pulilan municipal health officer.

The twins are now confined at a Manila public hospital for the pneumonia treatment.

Their father, Leo, works at a garments factory and is unable to finance the hospital obligations.

Maricel said they have two other children, who were sent to their relatives, to allow the couple to focus on the babies’ medical needs.

The organizers of the Celebeer Festival are hoping to sell enough tickets to fill up the street between the public market and a mall at the intersection of the Cagayan Valley Highway. Each P150-ticket entitles the participant to two free beers./lb