"One out of four people in Ilocos Norte is a leper." claims Mr. Orly Guirao, citing a report from the Health Ministry’s regional office (Malaya, Feb.7).

This false statement is based on a misreading of the statistics. As Mr. Guirao himself points out, the report says that there were 40,615 lepers in the region, of whom 12,453 were Ilocos Norte residents.

All that this means is that 31 per cent of the lepers in the region were residents of Ilocos Norte: that is, out of three lepers in the region, one was an Ilocos Norte resident. It does not mean that one-fourth of all Ilocos Norte residents are lepers.

Though Mr. Guirao’s story is offensive to every person who comes from Ilocos Norte, I am sure that his inaccurate reading of the report was neither intentional nor malicious.

RUBEN N. MUEGO