Lifestyle

A CALL TO ACTION FROM PEOPLE OF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION AND THE HEALTH SECTOR AS A COLLECTIVE EXPRESSION OF INDIGNATION

Filipinos are losing their life, their means of subsistence, and their aspirations. What more proof do we need that the respect they deserve from their leaders has been sporadic at best, and non-existent at worst? What other fact can possibly persuade us that what is happening in our country must come to an end? What should we scream and what should we do to get our country back on track?

We are on the verge of having to take action and not wait any longer, lest our country’s health system collapse and drag down everything else that has health effects, including our economy, social order and security, education, national growth and development, and our ability to compete in the future. Our weak and unstable health system is corroded and destroyed by the constant and sustained assault. It is such an interesting avenue to learn something new from the zoom meeting I attended. We all know how our country faces this global pandemic and how our government responded to it. We saw many unwanted approaches that all of a sudden changed our different perspectives. I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn so much from the zoom conference; I now have a better understanding of the challenges and obstacles that our medical workers face, as well as their demands from our government.

We cannot – and must not – allow this to continue!

Guided by our Code of Conduct, we, the members of the health profession and the health sector of the Philippines, have endeavored to remain true to our mandate to attend to the health needs of the nation without regard for politics. But no other phenomenon in history than this Covid-19 global pandemic has opened our eyes and minds wider to the vulnerability and folly of this long-standing passivity. It has left free and unrestrained politicians and people with absolutely no competence in running the country, much less this catastrophic health debacle, to abuse power with impunity, misuse and steal taxpayers’ money and insult their intelligence, feed on the Filipinos’ desperation and helplessness at the time when their plea for true leadership is loudest but has remained unheeded.

Exposed and battered beyond any doubt in the past 18 months of the global pandemic, our broken health systems need to be overhauled and invested upon with huge financial resources and human expertise in both science and technology, and the political will of our top leaders to get things done quickly. Instead, the global pandemic has brought to bear on the Filipino people not only the contagion of, and deaths from, Covid-19 but worse, the incompetence, insensitivity and corruption of no less than those who are supposed to lead and protect them. Unmitigated and shameless greed is being flaunted to our faces!

The corruption and the total disregard for decency and morality have begun to permeate the Filipino soul. This is NOT who we are, but this is what we are going to be unless we do something about it NOW. Impunity has become the norm; the culture that our offspring will imbibe in the years to come is there for all of us to dread. The so-called leaders, voted into office ‘without thinking’, have no more shame – brazen, avaricious, sugapa, with no regard for how the nation would survive! They actually believe that they can go on and on with this delusion of irreproachable power, reflected from their leader who they will eventually dump when the time comes.

We shout out our indignation and intolerance to what is happening! We will no longer compromise the truth for what we have been conditioned to believe to be true but clearly isn’t, we shall not go down the slippery slope of decay as a nation. We are already down on the ground, made worse by the fear, helplessness and hopelessness that can paralyze us into inaction.

We cannot go on fighting for every Filipino’s life and health if we cannot work together – because we are afraid, because we are severely handicapped, because we are in pain – physically and psychologically, because our numbers are dwindling. If we say and do nothing, and just accept that our nation’s health will

remain in the hands of people who care not for our country but for themselves, then what are we here for?

Who are we?

We are the leaders of the health profession and the health sector. As we look beyond our individual comforts and interests, we aspire to fight for order, decency and integrity in government, and commit to take collective action against poor governance and impropriety in the health sector for the sake of our patients, our colleagues, our families and children, the doctors, nurses and nurse assistants at the frontlines, the medical technologists in the laboratories, and for our own sake. We avow to initiate and execute within our respective professional organizations appropriate collective action toward this end.

For love of country, our Philippines, we are affixing our signatures as expression of our indignation, raising our voice to ensure that we are heard, and expressing our readiness to take a stand against whoever and whatever would dare frustrate the Filipinos’ call for good governance, and deprive them access to decent healthcare and the right to aspire for a healthy life! We are asserting the call to change and render accountable the people who are responsible for the abuse, misuse and theft of the people’s money for their own benefit at the worst time when the citizens’ lives are at stake!

We support the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee in its investigation to seek the truth and crush corruption that has severely crippled our society. Public office is a public trust. Public officials should be accountable to the people; they should serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency; they should act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.

We do not and cannot expect anything less.

(SGD)

Past Presidents and Leaders of Medical Societies

Dr. Manuel Dayrit

Former Secretary, Department of Health

Dr. Enrique T. Ona

Former Secretary, Department of Health

Dr. Carmencita Reodica

Former Secretary, Department of Health

Dr. Susie Pineda Mercado

Former Undersecretary, Department of Health

Dr. Madeleine de Rosas-Valera

Former Undersecretary, Department of Health

Dr. Juan Maria Pablo Nanagas

Former Undersecretary, Department of Health

Dr. Augusto D. Litonjua