A Collective Call - 13 October 2021 - 329pm
A Collective Call - 13 October 2021 - 329pm
A Collective Call - 13 October 2021 - 329pm
From the Members of the Medical Profession and the Health Sector
The Filipino people are losing their lives, their livelihood and their hope. What more proof is needed to
convince us that the respect that they deserve from their leaders has been wanting at best, and nil at
worst? What alternative truth can possibly stop us from saying that what is happening to our country
must end? What must we scream and how must we act to put our country back on the right track?
We are at the brink where we must take charge and tarry no longer, lest the health system of our country
fall off the cliff and bring down with it everything else that health impacts on: our economy, social order
and security, education, national growth & development, and the capacity to compete for the future. The
continuous and persistent assault to our fragile and unstable health system is corrosive and destructive.
Guided by our Code of Conduct, we, the members of the health profession and the health sector of the
Philippines, have endeavored to remain true to our mandate to attend to the health needs of the nation
without regard for politics. But no other phenomenon in history than this Covid-19 global pandemic has
opened our eyes and minds wider to the vulnerability and folly of this long-standing passivity. It has left
free and unrestrained politicians and people with absolutely no competence in running the country, much
less this catastrophic health debacle, to abuse power with impunity, misuse and steal taxpayers’ money
and insult their intelligence, feed on the Filipinos’ desperation and helplessness at the time when their
plea for true leadership is loudest but has remained unheeded.
Exposed and battered beyond any doubt in the past 18 months of the global pandemic, our broken health
systems need to be overhauled and invested upon with huge financial resources and human expertise in
both science and technology, and the political will of our top leaders to get things done quickly. Instead,
the global pandemic has brought to bear on the Filipino people not only the contagion of, and deaths
from, Covid-19 but worse, the incompetence, insensitivity and corruption of no less than those who are
supposed to lead and protect them. Unmitigated and shameless greed is being flaunted to our faces!
The corruption and the total disregard for decency and morality have begun to permeate the Filipino soul.
This is NOT who we are, but this is what we are going to be unless we do something about it NOW.
Impunity has become the norm; the culture that our offspring will imbibe in the years to come is there for
all of us to dread. The so-called leaders, voted into office ‘without thinking’, have no more shame - brazen,
avaricious, sugapa, with no regard for how the nation would survive! They actually believe that they can
go on and on with this delusion of irreproachable power, reflected from their leader who they will
eventually dump when the time comes.
We shout out our indignation and intolerance to what is happening! We will no longer compromise the
truth for what we have been conditioned to believe to be true but clearly isn’t, we shall not go down the
slippery slope of decay as a nation. We are already down on the ground, made worse by the fear,
helplessness and hopelessness that can paralyze us into inaction.
We cannot go on fighting for every Filipino’s life and health if we cannot work together – because we are
afraid, because we are severely handicapped, because we are in pain – physically and psychologically,
because our numbers are dwindling. If we say and do nothing, and just accept that our nation’s health will
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remain in the hands of people who care not for our country but for themselves, then what are we here
for?
We are the leaders of the health profession and the health sector. As we look beyond our individual
comforts and interests, we aspire to fight for order, decency and integrity in government, and commit to
take collective action against poor governance and impropriety in the health sector for the sake of our
patients, our colleagues, our families and children, the doctors, nurses and nurse assistants at the
frontlines, the medical technologists in the laboratories, and for our own sake. We avow to initiate and
execute within our respective professional organizations appropriate collective action toward this end.
For love of country, our Philippines, we are affixing our signatures as expression of our indignation, raising
our voice to ensure that we are heard, and expressing our readiness to take a stand against whoever and
whatever would dare frustrate the Filipinos’ call for good governance, and deprive them access to decent
healthcare and the right to aspire for a healthy life! We are asserting the call to change and render
accountable the people who are responsible for the abuse, misuse and theft of the people’s money for
their own benefit at the worst time when the citizens’ lives are at stake!
We support the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee in its investigation to seek the truth and crush
corruption that has severely crippled our society. Public office is a public trust. Public officials
should be accountable to the people; they should serve them with utmost responsibility,
integrity, loyalty, and efficiency; they should act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest
lives.
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(SGD)
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Dr. Nelson S. Abelardo Dr. Albert A. Atillano
Past President, Philippine Society of Hypertension Past President, Philippine Society of Hypertension
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Dr. Beatrice J. Tiangco Dr. Susie Pineda Mercado
Past President, Philippine Society of Medical Former Undersecretary, Department of Health
Oncology
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Dr. Julius C. Co-Soriano Dr. Marysia T. Recto
President, Philippine Society of Digestive Past President, Philippine Society of Allergy
Endoscopy Asthma and immunology
Department of Pediatrics, Makati Medical Center
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Dr. Michael L. Villa Dr. Alberto Roxas
President, Philippine Society of Endocrinology, Past President, Philippine College of Surgeons
Diabetes and Metabolism
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Dr. Patricia Maningat Dr. Gerardo B. Paulino
Endocrinologist Radiology
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Dr. Maria Rhodora de Lara-Valenzona Dr. Gabriel M Eala
President, PCP Southern Luzon Chapter CEO, SPC Medical Center San Pablo City
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Dr. Maria Caridad R. Pasno Dr. Daisy King-Ismael
Nephrologist Past President, Philippine Dermatological Society
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Dr. Benjamin Castro Jr. FPCP, FPSG Dr. Niño Anthony Tanseco
Philippine Society of Gastroenterology Radiologist
Dr. Ricardo D. Isip Jr. Ronald John Recio, M. A., RPsy EMDRPac. MBPsS
Past President, Albay Medical Society Clinical Psychologist
PMA Past Governor-Bicol
Ricardo Boncan, D.M.D., FOPAP, FICD Dr. Zarinah Garcia Gonzaga, FPOGS
President, Orofacial Pain Association Philippines Board of Trustees, Philippine Society of Maternal
Fetal Medicine
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Dr. Roehl Salvador Dr. Lou Camille D. Jalbuena
Surgeon, Manila Doctors Hospital and Asian IM-Gastroenterology
Hospital
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Dr. Eloisa E. Pornillos Dr. Melvin R. Hacutina
President, Philippine College of Physicians Bicol Immediate Past President, Philippine College of
Chapter Physicians Quezon City Chapter
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Dr. Jean Marie Ahorro Dr. Ranhel De Roxas-Bernardino
Philippine Neurological Association (South Luzon Philippine Neurological Association (South Luzon
Chapter) Chapter)
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Dr. Imelda Bolinao- Campaña Dr. Imelda S. David
Philippine Obstetrical and Gynecological Society Philippine Neurological Association
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Dr. Agripino Beng Javier Dr. Rosario Paguntalan
Ex-Officio, Makati Medical Center Medical Staff Secretary, Makati Medical Center Medical Staff
Association Association
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Dr. Arlene Bravo Dr. Gem Lazaro
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Makati Department of Pediatrics, Makati Medical Center
Medical Center
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Dr. Jeffrey Chua Dr. Martin Pedrosa Manahan
Section of Peripheral Vascular Surgery, Makati Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Makati
Medical Center Medical Center
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Dr. Ana Rosario Sta. Ana-Famador Dr. Joseph Gerard D. Lipana
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Makati Chairman, Department of Physical Medicine &
Medical Center Rehabilitation, Makati Medical Center
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Dr. Jocelyn Isidro Dr. Arnel Diaz
Section of Endocrinology, Makati Medical Center Former Chairman, Department of Surgery, Makati
Medical Center
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Dr. Barbara Domingo Dr. Christine Santos
Section of Oncology, Makati Medical Center Deputy Head, CLS Eye Center, Makati Medical
Center
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