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Getting sick, digging your grave

I visited Sagada and Bontoc last week to interview personalities knowledgeable on the ongoing tribal wars in those areas. While on the job, I caught fever and colds in Sagada. I took some medicines to relieve my condition and it worked. But when I came back to Baguio, my condition worsened.

I immediately sought help from the medical practitioners at the CHESTCORE, a non-government organization involved in community health. I got from their clinic 14 co-trimoxazole anti-biotic tablets which I took twice a day for seven days. The prices of medicine at CHESTCORE clinic are cheaper compared to prices in commercial pharmacies. Co-trimoxazole is sold at the CHESTCORE at P4 per tablet while it is sold in commercial pharmacies at P15 per tablet, both at 500 milligrams.

My ailment was considered minor. Yet, I needed medication which was quite heavy on my pocket. If you get sick anyway, you just don’t need the medicines but also vitamins and appropriate food for your immediate recovery.

Based on that experience, I have the opportunity to review our present health system and situation. I realized that medical services are very expensive these days. This is true especially in our country where 70 % of the population lives below the poverty line. The nailed wages of the working class is not enough to catch up with the skyrocketing prices of goods and services. Prices of medicines and other services go up as a result of inflation and the numerous increases of oil products.

How do medicines relate with oil products prices? Well, they use these products in the industry of producing the medicines and the distribution to the different pharmacies and drugstores in the Philippines. This is among the domino effect of the oil price increases traced to the liberalization of the oil industry through the oil deregulation law.

We also encountered the privatization of health institutions and health care systems. Government hospitals are being privatized including the lung and heart centers. Others follow suit in the guise of corporatization, which is basically privatization. The state has turned its back from its obligation to deliver services, including health, to its citizens. Worse, the state has delegated that role to private institutions whose main objective is to gain profit. Lately, the PHILHEALTH cards that Pres Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo dangled for her election in May last year have become useless.

The worst situation of our health system is reflected on the government budget this year. Based on the Malacañang proposal, Congress passed the 2005 budget totaling to P907.6 billion. The government enumerated the top 10 agencies for budget allocation (with their equivalent percentages) which are as follows: (1) DepEd P112 billion (12.3%); (2). DPWH P49.5 B (5.4%); (3). DND P46.2 B (5%); (4). DILG P43.9 B ((4.8%); (5). DAR P14.7 B (1.6%); (6). DA P14.3 B; (7). DOH P10.3 B (1.1%); (8). DOTC P8.0B (0.8%); (9). Judiciary P8.0 B (0.8%); and 10). DOF P6.8 B (0.7%).

The above data are deceiving. The budget of the military and police educational institutions are included in the DepEd’s budget making it as the top 1 agency in terms of budget allocation.

What is more deceiving is the fact that the biggest slice of the national budget is channeled for the payment on the foreign and local debt. Almost 40 % of the yearly budget is allotted for the payment of these debts incurred during the past administrations. This allocation is based on the automatic appropriation law passed during the time of former Pres. Ferdinand Marcos. The debt servicing allocation is even bigger even if the above budgets for the 10 agencies are combined together.

While the DOH is the 7th agency for the appropriation, the agency’s budget which total to P10.3 billion is too small for the 83 million Filipinos. With the figure, only 33 centavos is allotted for each Filipino daily. In fact, the budget for this year was reduced by P0.1 billion from last year’s budget of P10.4 billion. Worst, our health workers income remains the lowest. They are pushed to join the exodus abroad for better salaries.

Concretely, Pres. Arroyo turned has turned her back to the Filipino citizens as her policies for the peoples’ welfare is still remiss in her list of priorities. This is her vision of a “strong republic”, where getting sick is like digging your own grave. #

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