AT A RECENT UP conference, former UP Manila chancellor Ernesto Domingo, who is a physician, took the floor during a plenary discussion and emphatically declared, “Medicine is a social science.”

That statement came from a 19th century German physician, Rudolf Virchow, noted for his studies of the cell as well as his work in what’s called social medicine today, which sees medicine as part of a broader agenda for social reform. Today, the UP College of Medicine has several professors, including Dr. Domingo, working on these goals of social medicine.

As an occasional lecturer at that college, I’ve introduced one annual activity to help expose the students to social realities. This is a required visit to the Quiapo Medical Center (QMC) where the students observe what’s going on. I then meet with them to discuss what they’ve seen and the insights they gained about the country’s health care system.

Some of you may be wondering by now when this new hospital was built and where it is located.

Actually, I’m not referring to a hospital. I coined the name, partly tongue-in-cheek, to refer to the Catholic Church there, known for its Black Nazarene, and Plaza Miranda, the area in front of the church. Why QMC? Because the place is one of the busiest “medical” hubs in the country, with literally thousands of people using its services every day.

The church itself, which I see as one huge ER (Emergency Room), draws many people in dire straits, often including ill health, praying for intercessions mainly from Jesus the Nazarene. Plaza Miranda, on the other hand, has one of the largest Mercury drugstores in the country, and a stone’s throw away are the vendors who sell various medical preparations: flora, fauna, mineral, and even a “Western” drug, misoprostol, which I’ll explain shortly. I call that section the pharmacy department.

QMC also has a psychiatry department, and I don’t mean the term as it is used all too often in the Philippines with its connotations of mental illness. By psychiatry I mean counseling and support for mental health. The QMC psychiatry department offers an assortment of services: palm-reading, tarot cards, even “punsoy” (the Filipino mutated word for feng shui or geomancy).

I’ve written several columns about Quiapo, but I thought I’d feature the latest visit, or pilgrimage if you want to put it another way, from our UP medical students, a way as well of updating Inquirer readers on what’s going on at QMC.

Love

One of the students said their group had asked one of the vendors about medicinal plants for rayuma (rheumatism). The vendor responded by inviting them to a more quiet spot, which surprised them because it all seemed so shrouded in secrecy.

It turned out that the vendor thought they were looking for a gayuma, a love charm.

Love is in the air at QMC and that includes the Santo Niñong hubad or naked Santo Niño. Although one of the best-sellers in Quiapo, our medical students often miss out on this item. This year, one group did buy one of these images when the vendor told them it was for luck (suerte) and while they knew it was the Santo Niño, they hadn’t noticed, until I pointed it out to them, that it was completely naked and in a, hmmm, let me be politely medical here, tumescent or swollen state.

The Santo Niño has to be “activated” through prayers after which it is placed under the tongue (sublingually, if we want to be medical again) to “empower” its user, to whom no one can ever say no.

Now if this amazing Santo Niño does fail, you might want to check out the other gayuma uncovered by our medical students in their quest for a rayuma remedy. This gayuma consists of a powder which men are supposed to mix with water. I’m really running out of politely medical terms to use, so let’s just say it’s supposed to be used as a hygienic wash and considering it’s meant as a gayuma, you can guess what anatomical region it’s supposed to wash.

The love charm, mind you, isn’t the powder but the water in which it is mixed. How it is used I leave to your imagination, which would have to be rather prurient.

I know this last gayuma sounds outrageous, but let’s be academic about this. Quiapo draws people who feel they need some supernatural help in their quest for love. Besides the naked Santo Niño and the magical powder, you can hire women, inside the church, to pray for your special wishes, including those related to romance. (Our group of medical students, too busy for love, coughed up P50 to have prayers for exams.)

If the prayers don’t work for love, you can go back outside to Plaza Miranda and look for the women selling candles of assorted colors. Red ones are for “love life or love offering for the family” while pink ones are for “love and health.”

If, someday, love turns into treachery, you can go back and buy the black candles, which come in assorted sizes and shapes, including one in the form of a human being. The candles are supposed to be “pang-konsyensya,” to prick the consciousness of your ex. If you ask me, it’s more than conscience; this is 21st century Filipino do-it-yourself sorcery.

Treachery

When love leads to a pregnancy, sometimes with the male absconding, the QMC again offers its remedies, including herbals euphemistically called “pampabalik ng regla” (to restore menstruation), available in liquid and capsule forms.

If the herbals fail, QMC has one Western medicine, the now well-known misoprostol tablets. Reflecting the times, the vendors now offer “originals,” meaning the brand name Cytotec, for P150 each, as well as cheaper versions, presumably generics, for P75.

Authorities have repeatedly tried to crack down on the misoprostol vendors but have failed. The demand for misoprostol is just too strong and the drug is now sold in many cities throughout the country, through underground networks. Opposition to family planning in the country has intensified, coming mainly from conservative Catholics and when unintended pregnancies occur, it is in QMC, inside the church or outside, where Metro Manila’s women seek solace and solutions.

Sending medical students to QMC exposes them to alternative ways of looking at Quiapo, including recognition that some of the products do work, sometimes because the products do have medicinal value, sometimes because of an almost magical faith, sometimes because of a combination of both. QMC offers hope for those in despair, yet I always remind students to ask, as I do after each visit to Quiapo, “Doesn’t the Filipino deserve better?”

Email: mtan@inquirer.com.ph