HOTSPOT
Tonyo Cruz
No one can top the achievements this year by Filipino doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers. They should be Filipinos of the Year for 2020 in any credible list.
Every patient who recovered from COVID-19 is a result of the collective efforts of entire teams of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers who clocked in long hours and, in many instances, deprived of adequate rest and commensurate compensation.
We must not forget the scores who died in the pandemic’s first few weeks and months, when they were needlessly exposed to danger due to shortages in PPEs, transportation, accommodation, and food.
The first bursts of citizens’ solidarity actions were for them. Remember the students and faculty of state universities and colleges reopening their laboratories to produce PPEs, alcohol, disinfectants, and soaps? Remember the Frontline Feeders which helped send food to hospitals? Remember ResCute Operation which sent barbers to hospitals so healthcare workers could get much-needed haircuts amid the lockdown?
The first bursts of citizens’ political actions were guided and informed by healthcare workers: Free mass testing!
Top government officials continue to pay healthcare workers only lip service. They say they honor the sacrifices of our healthcare workers. But talk is cheap, as we have witnessed since the start of the weekly presidential addresses and special sessions of Congress.
In most countries that have already started mass vaccination, healthcare workers are among the first to be inoculated. In the United Kingdom, a Filipino nurse had the honor of administering the world’s first-ever vaccination. And judging by Britain’s respect for the many Filipino healthcare workers serving in their National Health Service, they surely made sure they have been vaccinated.
Here in their home country, top government officials have admitted smuggling in unauthorized vaccines and administered it among themselves and members of the Presidential Security Group.
Tens of thousands of Filipino healthcare workers bound for hospitals abroad were “detained” in the first few months of the pandemic. They were “locked in” here in their own country, with officials saying they were needed. But the government did not offer them decent jobs with decent protection and decent compensation.
In one instance, the government offered to pay a grand total of P500 a day for their “voluntary” service. No wonder our overseas Filipino healthcare workers are begging to be allowed to leave for abroad; Their host countries treat them better than their own country’s government.
This situation continues somewhat, with the labor department saying that the government would “calibrate” the overseas deployment of Filipino healthcare workers. It is all happening at the same odd time: The state preventing these citizens from exercising their rights to travel, of abode, and to work, while at the same time, not offering them gainful employment in their own country. As of today, tens of thousands of healthcare positions remain unfilled by the health department. It’s a disgrace and a shame, and a waste of the intelligence and brilliance of our healthcare workers.
We may not know until later the full effects of the earlier deployment ban on healthcare workers, and the continuing “slow down” of further deployments, to healthcare systems elsewhere. Filipino healthcare workers are denied jobs they’ve already signed up for abroad. And those foreign hospitals are likewise affected by Philippine state policy, as one of their main sources of manpower has dried up.
Nearly ten months later, we have witnessed the intellectual, political, scientific, and moral deficit of the government’s top officials in terms of addressing the pandemic.
The pandemic exposed the social cancer infecting not just our politics and economics, but also our healthcare system. P15-billion lost from the Philhealth scam seem mere loose change to unapologetic crooks given a pass in a political system ruled by impunity. We saw the social cancer separating the poor and rich, the provinces and the cities, the oligarchs and the working people, the insured and uninsured, the officials and the public they supposedly serve.
The President’s preference for retired generals and for police-military solutions has only brought us endless problems. That preference is also at the expense of the Filipino healthcare workers in whose hands actually rest the testing, treatment, and recovery of every patient and an entire nation gripped by a pandemic. Most of us would rather be vaccinated in the near future by a nurse or a doctor, than a cop or a soldier.
Just days ago, we paid tribute to our national hero Jose Rizal. Lest we forget, he was also a doctor. He studied abroad, yes, but went back to the country to cure his mother’s illness. He also diagnosed and prescribed antidotes to the social cancer in colonial Philippines. He found common cause with many other brilliant Filipinos in propagating a national identity, an effort that inspired a revolution.
We have a lot of new Dr. Rizals around us. They are in hospitals and medical centers, quietly and tirelessly saving those seriously afflicted with the coronavirus. 76 have died in the line of duty. A lot of them remain unpaid, or underpaid, even as they are overworked. Many are being prevented from working abroad.
May they find their voices and speak as courageously as Dr. Rizal. May we listen to them, heed them, and unite with them in addressing the pandemic and the social cancer.
Tonyo Cruz
No one can top the achievements this year by Filipino doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers. They should be Filipinos of the Year for 2020 in any credible list.
Every patient who recovered from COVID-19 is a result of the collective efforts of entire teams of doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers who clocked in long hours and, in many instances, deprived of adequate rest and commensurate compensation.
We must not forget the scores who died in the pandemic’s first few weeks and months, when they were needlessly exposed to danger due to shortages in PPEs, transportation, accommodation, and food.
The first bursts of citizens’ solidarity actions were for them. Remember the students and faculty of state universities and colleges reopening their laboratories to produce PPEs, alcohol, disinfectants, and soaps? Remember the Frontline Feeders which helped send food to hospitals? Remember ResCute Operation which sent barbers to hospitals so healthcare workers could get much-needed haircuts amid the lockdown?
The first bursts of citizens’ political actions were guided and informed by healthcare workers: Free mass testing!
Top government officials continue to pay healthcare workers only lip service. They say they honor the sacrifices of our healthcare workers. But talk is cheap, as we have witnessed since the start of the weekly presidential addresses and special sessions of Congress.
In most countries that have already started mass vaccination, healthcare workers are among the first to be inoculated. In the United Kingdom, a Filipino nurse had the honor of administering the world’s first-ever vaccination. And judging by Britain’s respect for the many Filipino healthcare workers serving in their National Health Service, they surely made sure they have been vaccinated.
Here in their home country, top government officials have admitted smuggling in unauthorized vaccines and administered it among themselves and members of the Presidential Security Group.
Tens of thousands of Filipino healthcare workers bound for hospitals abroad were “detained” in the first few months of the pandemic. They were “locked in” here in their own country, with officials saying they were needed. But the government did not offer them decent jobs with decent protection and decent compensation.
In one instance, the government offered to pay a grand total of P500 a day for their “voluntary” service. No wonder our overseas Filipino healthcare workers are begging to be allowed to leave for abroad; Their host countries treat them better than their own country’s government.
This situation continues somewhat, with the labor department saying that the government would “calibrate” the overseas deployment of Filipino healthcare workers. It is all happening at the same odd time: The state preventing these citizens from exercising their rights to travel, of abode, and to work, while at the same time, not offering them gainful employment in their own country. As of today, tens of thousands of healthcare positions remain unfilled by the health department. It’s a disgrace and a shame, and a waste of the intelligence and brilliance of our healthcare workers.
We may not know until later the full effects of the earlier deployment ban on healthcare workers, and the continuing “slow down” of further deployments, to healthcare systems elsewhere. Filipino healthcare workers are denied jobs they’ve already signed up for abroad. And those foreign hospitals are likewise affected by Philippine state policy, as one of their main sources of manpower has dried up.
Nearly ten months later, we have witnessed the intellectual, political, scientific, and moral deficit of the government’s top officials in terms of addressing the pandemic.
The pandemic exposed the social cancer infecting not just our politics and economics, but also our healthcare system. P15-billion lost from the Philhealth scam seem mere loose change to unapologetic crooks given a pass in a political system ruled by impunity. We saw the social cancer separating the poor and rich, the provinces and the cities, the oligarchs and the working people, the insured and uninsured, the officials and the public they supposedly serve.
The President’s preference for retired generals and for police-military solutions has only brought us endless problems. That preference is also at the expense of the Filipino healthcare workers in whose hands actually rest the testing, treatment, and recovery of every patient and an entire nation gripped by a pandemic. Most of us would rather be vaccinated in the near future by a nurse or a doctor, than a cop or a soldier.
Just days ago, we paid tribute to our national hero Jose Rizal. Lest we forget, he was also a doctor. He studied abroad, yes, but went back to the country to cure his mother’s illness. He also diagnosed and prescribed antidotes to the social cancer in colonial Philippines. He found common cause with many other brilliant Filipinos in propagating a national identity, an effort that inspired a revolution.
We have a lot of new Dr. Rizals around us. They are in hospitals and medical centers, quietly and tirelessly saving those seriously afflicted with the coronavirus. 76 have died in the line of duty. A lot of them remain unpaid, or underpaid, even as they are overworked. Many are being prevented from working abroad.
May they find their voices and speak as courageously as Dr. Rizal. May we listen to them, heed them, and unite with them in addressing the pandemic and the social cancer.