UNDER THE MICROSCOPE
Recently, Dr. Ma. Natividad Marian Silva Castro, a 1995 cum laude graduate of the UP College of Medicine (my student in second year Pathology), was arrested at her San Juan home on charges of multiple kidnapping and illegal detention, based on an arrest warrant issued by a Regional Trial Court in Agusan del Sur dated Jan. 30, 2020. No bail was set, meaning she will be imprisoned while awaiting trial.
Dr. Castro’s crime? She set up community health centers and programs in Mindanao and was a strong advocate for the rights of indigenous peoples, like the Lumad she was helping. But it was likely her role in bringing several Lumad to the Geneva United Nations headquarters several years ago to protest their being victims of militarization that got the ire of the current administration. She was secretary-general for the human rights group Karapatan-Caraga.
Red-tagging followed, with the PNP identifying her as a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines Central Committee and head of the CPP-New People’s Party (NPA) national health bureau. In November 2020, tarpaulins in Caraga proclaimed her as a “communist NPA.” We all know what awaits Dr. Castro — an indefinite detention while awaiting trial and an even longer period of incarceration during the trial. And yet, she is luckier than Dr. Remberto “Bobby” Daniel de la Paz.
I knew Bobby very well; he graduated in 1976, a year junior to me in the UP College of Medicine. He was very involved in the student movement and, upon graduating, went with his wife-classmate, Sylvia Ciocon-Dela Paz, to live in Samar, where they dedicated their practice to serving the poor. Samar was, during the martial law years, a place of extreme poverty, where malnutrition was rampant and medical services were badly needed. The young doctor-couple set up a community-based health program in Gandara, Samar, and went to remote villages to treat the sick. They truly heeded UP Medicine Dean Florentino (Chuchi) Herrera’s exhortation to go serve the people.
The government did not look kindly on their activities, branding them subversives. But isn’t that what we doctors do – heal the sick? Promote good health? Bobby and Sylvia were just doing what they had sworn to do despite receiving death threats for it. They moved to Catbalogan City, where they continued their work.
On April 23, 1982, Bobby de la Paz was gunned down by a single gunman while he was seeing patients in his clinic. He died the following day after several hours of heroic resuscitation by fellow doctors. We are commemorating his 40th death anniversary two months from now. He is honored as a hero at the Bantayog ng mga Bayani, having given his life in the service of his fellow Filipinos.
Or Dr. Raul Winston Andutan, who specialized in urology after graduating from UP Medicine, class 1984, brutally gunned down in Cagayan de Oro on Dec. 2, 2021. It was said to have been ordered by a politician over a land dispute.
These are just three examples of doctors who stayed in the Philippines and devoted their practices to the people. There are many more who are as dedicated as they were to serving our people. Yet, even during this pandemic, when we need medical professionals the most, people like Dr. Castro are being detained for reasons termed fabricated by their families, or killed like Dr. Andutan.
We invested so much in their medical education and training as “Iskolar ng Bayan,” only for them to be waylaid and prevented from healing and saving lives. They are precious assets to the communities they serve and to the country, yet we treat them like criminals and butcher them like pigs.
These events have a chilling effect on the doctors and nurses who are currently serving in the countryside. It is signaling a return to the repression that characterized the martial law years. Coupled with the recent Comelec moves to remove posters from private properties, which is a violation of the constitutional right to free self-expression, we seem to be moving away from the tenets of democracy back to a dark age of totalitarianism.
Can we blame our health professionals for wanting to leave the country? If you can’t be properly remunerated for your services and have to deal with harassment, threats, intimidation, and death, why would you want to stay? We are hailed as heroes yet must beg for our just remuneration and hide from assassins and oppressors. Truly, as I said in last week’s column, health care is political, though this development takes it to the next level.
Our people deserve better health care. Our health care workers deserve better treatment. We all deserve a better government. This time, we have the power to make these a reality. By voting for a just, honest, compassionate and competent President. The next move is in our hands. Vote wisely.