PRESS RELEASE
February 3, 2014
References: Sean Herbert Velchez, RN, NOHWU-AHW
President, 0949-9775037
Jossel
Ebesate, RN, AHW National President,
0918-9276381
Health workers, patients and
people's health advocates from Philippine Orthopedic Center and other hospitals
and institutions filed a petition for certiorari and prohibition today in the
Supreme Court in a bid to stop the privatization of the only government
orthopedic hospital in the country.
"President Benigno Aquino
IIII and Department of Health Secretary Enrique Ona are deaf to the peoples'
clamor to stop privatization. We hope the Supreme Court justices will have the
heart and mind to listen and consider the people's health and welfare,"
said Sean Velchez, president of National Orthopedic Hospital Workers' Union -
Alliance of Health Workers (NOHWU-AHW), and one of the petitioners in the case.
The petitioners raised the
questions of constitutionality, procedural concerns and negative effects to
poor patients and health workers of the privatization of POC.
“This is a fight not only by
POC health workers and patients but by the entire Filipino people. This is a
fight for our right to health,” said Jossel Ebesate, national president of
Alliance of Health Workers and a chief nurse in the Philippine General
Hospital.
Atty. Edre Olalia, chief
legal counsel for the petitioners and secretary-general of the National Union
of People's Lawyers (NUPL) said that it is high time that people's health be
taken up as a demandable right in our justice system. The counsels took
inspiration from retired Chief Justice Reynato Puno's statement in July that
socio-economic rights like housing and health are justiciable rights.
Aside from Velchez and
Ebesate, the petitioners also include, among others, patients from POC, Dr. Amelia Maglacas, former World Health
Organization (WHO) nurse-scientist,
Representatives Neri Colmenares and Carlos Zarate of Bayan Muna
PartyList, Representative Terry Ridon of Kabataan PartyList, Dr. Fresco
Yapendon of Philippine Association of Medical Specialists, Dr. Joseph Carabeo
of Community Medicine Development Foundation, and Eleanor Nolasco of Nars ng
Bayan.
The group vowed to continue
their protest against the privatization of POC and other public hospitals and
health services. #
