Hope rises for those against public hospitals’ privatization

This is in reaction to the Inquirer’s news article on the election of Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas as president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (“Bishop Soc heads CBCP,” Front Page, 7/8/13). From his statement regarding the Church’s role as “conscience troublemakers” we health workers see a glimmer of hope that gives us reason to count on the Church for guidance and help.

Health workers and the Filipino people are facing a big challenge with regard to the planned privatization of the Philippine Orthopedic Center (POC) and other public hospitals in the country. This is catastrophic for our people, especially the poor. The POC is the only specialty public hospital for musculo-skeletal, spinal and rehabilitation medicine, which serves hundreds of thousands of patients yearly. Once privatized, the POC will be turned into a massive business health empire for the rich and those who can pay. So where will these poor patients go?

Secondly, tenured health workers are being threatened with massive displacement, contractualization and layoffs.

We are angry that the government is abandoning its sacred role as provider of health care to its people, as mandated by our Constitution and as a signatory to international conventions. The Aquino regime is abdicating its role in favor of Megawide Construction Corp. and World Citi Consortium. Our poor are being sacrificed on the altar of privatization and big business.

We ask the CBCP and the Catholic hierarchy, and all the men and women of goodwill from different churches and faiths, to add their prophetic voices in the defense of life and human dignity. Let us oppose the privatization of the POC because it is antilife and antipoor.

—SEAN HERBERT VELCHEZ, RN, president, National Orthopedic Hospital Workers Union-AHW, Quezon City, sean_herbert@yahoo.com