When soldiers get in way of people’s health
this is a re post of an article in the leaves of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
MANILA, Philippines — A community health worker in Misamis Occidental, who was a part of a team conducting a Mindanao-wide health research, was abducted, allegedly by military intelligence agents, early last year.
The abductors not only grilled him but also physically tortured him before he was set free.
During the interrogation, he was shown a list containing the names of leaders of progressive organizations and party-list groups in the province. Days after, two of those on the list were killed.
Fearing for his life, the health worker left Mindanao.
Fear also stopped a colleague from continuing her volunteer work. She found out that her name was in the alleged military’s death list—the Order of Battle (OB).
In Tandag, Surigao del Sur, 29-year-old Marlene Maraquiza decided to give up her task as a community health worker after her husband Hermilito was attacked and shot dead inside their house on the night of Aug. 20, 2006, making him the 37th victim of political killings in Mindanao last year.
The names of Hermilito, a leader of a local peasant organization, and Marlene were allegedly on the military’s OB list. Days before he was killed, Hermilito was asked by the military to “surrender.”
‘Militarization’
Dani Beltran, project coordinator of the Mindanao Project Management Desk of the Council for Health Development (CHD), said the state of health of the people in Mindanao worsened not only because of government neglect but also because of “militarization” in many parts of the island.
This was apparent in the research conducted by Beltran’s group, which was assisted by the Aid Uprooted Program of the European Union, in 38 communities in eight cities and 16 provinces of Mindanao from July to September last year.
Beltran said the health of the people in Mindanao—Moros, lumad (indigenous) and Christians—was in crisis following their community diagnosis of perceived health problems of 3,579 respondents.
The study was part of the project called “Bringing Health into the Hands of the People.” Covered were Agusan del Sur, Agusan del Norte, Bukidnon, Camiguin, Compostela Valley, Davao del Sur, Davao del Norte, Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Misamis Occidental, Misamis Oriental, Sarangani, South Cotabato, Surigao del Sur, Surigao del Norte and Zamboanga del Norte.
It focused on the perception of the respondents of their own condition and the delivery of health services in their areas.
Very grim realities
As the group noted the perceptions, its members saw the significant realities, some of them very grim, that surrounded the issue of people’s health and the government’s response.
“We have seen the extent of abandonment by the government of its responsibility to deliver health services to the people … and we have seen and experienced the obvious—that in Mindanao, there are more military operatives with their guns and bullets than medicines and health workers,” Beltran said.
Carlos Atten, chair of the Nagkahiusang Mag-uuma sa Sibulan (United Farmers Association of Sibulan) in Barangay Sibulan, Sta. Cruz in Davao del Sur, attested to how health workers faced difficulty in entering their village because the military disallowed it.
Village officials, he said, even disregarded the “authority” given by top leaders of the local government and instead gave more weight to the decision of the military in the area. Only after the intervention of the Sta. Cruz Municipal Health Office were the health workers allowed to enter and conduct the research.
“They were tagged as NPA (New People’s Army) by the military, that’s why they were barred from entering the village. The negotiation took us very long,” Atten said.
‘No clearance, no entry’
Beltran said some military troops implemented a “no clearance, no entry” policy for nongovernment organizations that were not in their list of accredited organizations.
“Military propaganda has created a mindset among the people in the communities that NGOs, which are not endorsed by the military, are fronts for the recruitment of NPA,” Beltran said.
“The Mindanao people’s health condition coexists with a social landscape that shows bombing operations, political killings, hamleting, subservience of the civilian authorities to the policies imposed by the military and different forms of human rights violations. This situation aggravates the already critical condition of the health care delivery system in Mindanao,” Beltran said.
With militarization, the next big thing that deprives the people of basic health services is the government’s neglect of health in its priority projects.
For 2007, Congress approved only P438.874 million for health services from its P1.126-trillion national budget or about 0.04 percent.
Because of this, Beltran said, at least 219 of the 397 death incidents in the areas surveyed from June 2005 to June 2006 were not given medical attention.
He added that the lack of importance given by the national and local government to basic health services led to the miseducation of the people and even death.
Perceived diseases
The study revealed that hypertension, although known as just a symptom of an existing disease, was perceived as the No. 1 “sickness” in poor communities, comprising 36 percent or 830 of the 3,579 respondents.
Next was asthma, which comprised 30.4 percent.
Beltran said the focus group discussions in the communities where hypertension was seen as high showed that the symptoms might have been caused by the food the respondents ate regularly, such as dried fish and fish paste.
The study also revealed that 15 percent were not aware of the causes of their diseases. Other disturbing facts from the study:
Only eight of 100 pregnant women were seen by a doctor.
Six of 10 child births take place at home without the assistance of a health professional.
Mothers cannot breastfeed their babies.
One of 10 mothers was not aware of any family planning method.
Two to three of 10 persons who complained of dental problems resorted to self-medication. And only one got a treatment from a dentist.
The Department of Health project’s “Botika sa Barangay” did not reach the communities and eight of 10 barangays did not have drugstores.
There was no doctor in the barangays. Government midwives were seldom seen in remote villages. There were people in far-flung areas who have not seen a nurse in their whole life.
Five of 10 death incidents were not given medical attention.
Preventable
Beltran said the diseases perceived by the people were actually preventable.
“The signs and symptoms of these diseases do not need specialized treatment but can be managed by first-line defense employing primary health care. Yet, due to poverty and inadequate health services, the symptoms became chronic and incurable,” Beltran said.
“A case in point is hypertension, which is just a symptom of cardiovascular disease. But the families of peasants, farmers, and national minorities who comprise the majority of Mindanao’s population are not capable of eliminating the symptoms of these heart-related diseases,” he added.
He said the signs and symptoms of common diseases found in the community diagnosis were natural effects of the insufficient income of the salaried and the wage-earners, joblessness, landlessness, and other forms of poverty in the rural areas.
“Health facilities in the communities are very limited. A health unit with a blood pressure apparatus is considered lucky enough compared to other communities whose health center is only characterized by a structure minus the personnel and health paraphernalia,” Beltran said.
“While the national government drumbeats its flagship programs on health, the health of the people continues to deteriorate. While it sings its own praises on the number of Botika sa Barangay it has established, most of the villages in Mindanao do not have access to essential medicines.”
Jonathan Placido, president of the Employees Association of Regional Health Office-Southern Mindanao, said the DOH could not be faulted for the inability of the government to deliver basic services.
The delivery of health services to the people is actually the responsibility of the local governments after the devolution of power to the local government, he said.####
Kung di ba naman talaga mga tinamaan ng lintik etong mga sundalo na eto.. nakuuu kung di lang ako faithfull kay florence nightingale at sa panunumpa ng Nars na nag sasad " never prescribed or knowingly administer any harmful drugs or substances" ewan ko na lang…
