Medium Rare
Jullie Y. Daza
And it’s not just doctors, nurses, lab technicians, hygiene and sanitation engineers, but also policemen/women out on the streets chasing after toughies aching to catch or spread the vilest of viruses.
A picture published in Manila Standard a few days ago says it all: five exhausted medical frontliners dressed in their PPE lying flat on their back on the grassy portion of a sidewalk – presumably within sight of a hospital – in Sagay City, Negros Occidental. The photo by Jack Gallardo was taken last November, which should have made it to Photo of the Year in 2020, but eight months later it is still timely and it still speaks volumes, damn, damn, damn!
We love our doctors, nurses, midwives, and other hospital personnel, but we forget to give them a living wage, what we promised them in terms of hazard pay (P3,000 a month), transportation and meal allowances, life insurance and other benefits. We have the money – ask PhilHealth -- we just didn’t have the imagination (?) to demand that the bosses who sign the checks disbursed the money immediately.
Did we need another IATF “czar” for this? We had P18 billion in unspent Bayanihan 2 funds that were reverted to the national treasury because some chieftain or other let it slide that promises made should be promises kept.
The healthcare system is sick for lack of a save-and-spend system, not for want of self-sacrificing healthcare workers.
Remember their urgent plea for a time-out last year? This time around, the hospital, medical and nurses associations have had it again and are now sounding the call for a mass resignation. Hard to believe that overworked medics and nurses did not walk out of their jobs sooner. COVID is not the only disease they’re fighting, it’s bureaucratic amnesia as well.
One group that’s not heard to complain are the 5,000 policemen/women who have been infected, but they’re not making any noises. Blame it on the nature of their job, pride, or code of conduct? Do them a favor, please. Stop the nuts who argue with them at checkpoints and on crowded streets, as if by spinning tall tales and fantastic excuses they can get back at the cops and transfer bacteria and germs to them.