Hospital “Corpse” bill opposed, brand Ona and Aquino as “Death Salesmen”

The following is the press statement of the Alliance of Health Workers on the occasion of  public hearing called today, September 4, 2012 by the Committee on Health, House of Representatives, Philippine Congress on House Bill 6145 - An act converting the 26 government hospitals (nationwide) into government-owned and controlled corporations.

PRESS RELEASE

September 4, 2012

Reference:Jossel I. Ebesate, RN

AHW National President

Mobile Phone Number: 0918-9276381

Scrap House Bill 6145!  “We, public health workers nationwide together with the people, strongly oppose the recent moves of the government to corporatize the 26 public hospitals through the HouseBill 6145, House Bill 6069 and Senate Bill 3130.  These bills are anti-people and anti-health worker thus will deliver the death sentence to the already dismal state of people’s health”, said Mr. Jossel Ebesate, National President of the Alliance of Health Workers - an organization of health workers mostly working in public hospitals across the country.

Amidst the economic difficulties of the people, combined with rising cost of hospital fees, expensive medicines and spreading diseases like dengue and leptospirosis, the government is hell bent on corporatizing public hospitals. At present fees are charged to the patient for all medical and other supplies used during treatment. Most public hospitals are charging the use of emergency room or require deposit before treatment. Some hospitals reported that their charity beds are being charged now.

Philhealth as advertized by the Department of Health (DOH) is the panacea or the cure-all answer to all of our woes on the lack of government support on hospital and public health services is not enjoyed by the beneficiaries.  Beneficiaries of Philhealth have complained that they have to shell out money to buy medicines and supplies which are not made available in public hospitals. They have still to pay the rest of their hospital bills.

Corporatization will affect the security of tenure and well being of public health workers. At present, unfilled plantilla positions in the hospitals are not being filled up but the government is hiring contractuals. Benefits like hazard pay and other benefits are not funded as provided under Magna Carta of Public Health Workers.

Now, Congress and DOH are determined to pursue the said bills into law to legalize privatization by opening these 26 public hospitals to private investors as business partners and for profit. At the same time, the Aquino government is removing whatever little subsidy left for public hospitals. Concretely, the government delivers income and profit to big foreign and local business and abandoning its responsibility in providing health services to the people in return for the people’s payment of taxes. ###

PNOY’s health report in SONA is of a pathological liar

Alliance of Health Workers

Press Statement

July 25, 2012

References: 

Mr. Jossel I. Ebesate, AHW National President, Mobile no. 09189276381

Bonifacio S. Carmona, Jr.,PHCEA, Mobile no. 09088960094

Alliance of Health Workers members called their president a 'pathological liar' without regard for the welfare of his people following a 36% increase in maternal mortality, and 33,000 public health workers not receiving their benefits. - photo and caption by Sherbien Dacalanio 

Public health workers under the Alliance of Health Workers lambast PNOY’s third State of the Nation Address (SONA) as a litany of half-truths and outright lies. They called the President a sociopath – a pathological liar without regard for the welfare of the Filipino people. He has to flaunt his “accomplishments” to justify his inefficiencies and abdication of his responsibility to the Filipinos.

President Aquino’s report on health is nothing but a futile attempt to justify the effects of his health policies that wrought havoc both on people’s health and the health workers’ welfare. Data show a big increase in maternal mortality rate reaching as much as 36% in 2011. Since January of this year 2012, benefits under RA 7305 (Magna Carta of Public Health Workers) such as Hazard Pay, Subsistence and Laundry Allowances were either totally not given or cut back for more than 33,000 public health workers under the national government.

Inadequate funds in public hospitals have forced hospital management to impose charges even to patients identified as “indigent” which is the practice now at the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). Majority of PGH charity patients claim they are not members or dependents of PhilHealth members contrary to the trumpeted increase in PhilHealth membership covering as much as 85% of our population.

In spite of the “no balance billing policy” for PhilHealth members, it is limited only to 23 common cases and 3 catastrophic illnesses and only for sponsored members. What is more palpable is the continued cutback of public funds for government-run health institutions and facilities resulting to more and more out-of-pocket spending by our people for their health care needs. The data therefore that 6 out of 10 Filipinos that died without being attended to by a physician will only get worse with the self-reported hunger increasing with  first quarter 2012 Social Weather survey at record-high 28.8 of families or an estimated 4.8 million families.

In spite of the chronic shortage of health care personnel in our public health care delivery, the government adopts “band-aid” solution such as the RN HEALS Program. This program is just a training program with just P8,000 to P10,000 monthly allowance. This is way below the Php 18,600 for a regular Staff Nurse (Nurse 1) and Php 24,200 for a Public Health Nurse (Nurse II). Their one-year deployment further exploits these nurses.

The deterioration of our in public health care institutions due to budget cuts is the fruit of Aquino’s privatization of health services. This is part of the neo-liberal policies intertwined with liberalization, deregulation and flexibilization of labor. The Aquino government cannot but follow the imposition of the International Financial Institutions namely – the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. These are his real bosses. # 

AGAIN: Fuming Health Workers Doggedly Assail DBM for Non-payment of Benefits

Alliance of Health Workers

PRESS RELEASE

July 10, 2012

References:

Jossel I. Ebesate, National President, Mobile No: 09189276381

Robert T. Mendoza, Secretary General, Mobile No: 09324649757

“Six months have passed and for a number of times we were at the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to demand our hazard pay and other benefits which are rightfully ours,” said Mr. Jossel Ebesate, AHW president. 

More than 29,000 health workers nationwide have not received their hazard pay until today. Worse, DOH issued a Department Memorandum No. 2012-0181 last June 25 stopping the issuance of hazard pay until DBM approves the use of the concerned agency’s savings as per the latter’s guidelines. Said memorandum was made without due consultation with the health workers. 

This is a violation of the Magna Carta of Health Workers (R.A. 7305) and the Joint Resolution # 4. Hazard pay is a recognition of the health workers’ nature of work which exposes them to occupational hazards as stipulated in the said laws.  Every day as the health workers enter the hospital, risks of various types are present.  All hospitals are homes of hazardous and even lethal pathogens that spread over the entire place. Even the patients themselves pose threats to health workers’ lives like the mental patients at the National Center for Mental Health.  

“We health workers are exposed to hazardous workplace. The delay and worse the nonpayment of our hazard pay is government’s neglect of our safety and well-being. We are at the forefront of saving people’s lives but our lives are at the constant threat of the hazards we are exposed to, daily. Hazard pay is recognized by law through RA 7305, and just compensation, which the government failed to pay until this time, as we continuously deliver the much needed health services to the people?” he further stressed.

The health workers are wary at the government’s intent to scrap the Magna Carta benefits as verbalized by DBM representatives in some consultations and meetings. This strengthens even more their resolve to protect their rights in all forms warranted at any given time. “We will stand for our rights and will not give up without a good fight,” Robert Mendoza declared. ###

Justice for the Morong 43

July 6, 2012

Reference: 

Gary Liberal, R.N. – 0922-575-1689

Spokesperson

After more than a year of filing a civil suit against former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the first ever legal case filed against her after she stepped down from being the country’s chief executive, and Armed Forces of the Philippines’ high officials, the first hearing is finally held today in the office of Judge Ma. Luisa Padilla of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 226.

“We are somehow relieved that the case is finally moving in the court.  This is a step towards attaining justice,” nurse Gary Liberal said.

Regardless of what Arroyo and her camp does to deny their accountability for the illegal detention and torture of the 43 health workers in 2010 such as filing a motion to dismiss, Liberal and his group believes that the court will continue to exercise prudence in any decision it will make.  Early this June, Judge Padilla denied Arroyo’s, former AFP Chief of Staff Victor Ibrado and Gen. Delfin Bangit’s motion to dismiss stating “the court does not find any merit on Arroyo’s argument” and that the court shall wait for the presentation of evidence before deciding if Ibrado and Bangit should or should not be named as defendants in the case.

Out of desperation if not simple fib, Liberal revealed that the Philippine National Police Directorate for Personnel Services went as far as claiming that P/Supts. Marion Balonglong and  Allan Nubleza are in their roster while the address indicated in their answers filed in court were addressed to Camp Crame. Liberal said that deception has become an institutional practice in this government.

In the light of continuing attacks against health and development workers, as in the recent murder of Willem Geertman, executive director of Pampanga-based Alay Bayan, Inc., Justice for the 43 Health Workers! Alliance will continue to fight for justice until all state-backed human rights violators are punished under the law.  The Alliance also calls for continued public and media vigilance on their case.##

Unreleased Hazard Pay is Hazardous to our Health and Lives!

Alliance of Health Workers

PRESS RELEASE

July 2, 2012

Reference:     Jossel I. Ebesate, AHW National President, Mobile number: 0918-9276381

                        Emma S. Manuel, AHW President Emeritus, Mobile number: 0932-5224068

Indignant health workers storm the gates of the Department of Health today to protest the Department Memorandum Order stopping the release of health workers’ Hazard Pay.

DOH issued Memorandum Order No 2012-0181 on June 25, which ordered immediate stop in the payment of hazard pay and augmentation for laundry and subsistence allowances “to ensure uniform implementation and avoid future disallowances” until DBM approve the use of savings.

“Our health, lives and welfare are at stake! Where is the heart of DOH, Department of Budget & Management (DBM) and President Aquino for withholding our hard-earned benefits?,” said Jossel Ebesate, national president of Alliance of Health Workers. “Instead of upholding our rights and benefits and the patients’ welfare, the DOH is defending the inadequate budget for public hospitals and pushing the privatization of health services.”

Since January this year, health workers are protesting against the delay and decrease in hazard pay and other benefits as per DOH and DBM memoranda citing the provision in the General Appropriations Act requiring DBM approval for use of agency saving for benefits.

Hazard pay for most health workers is 25% of their basic salary, worth P2,000-P8,000/month per employee. This and other benefits are mandated by the Magna Carta of Public Health Workers (RA 7305). No fund was allotted for Magna Carta benefits since its approval in 1992, instead were charged to agency savings. DBM is now proposing a Joint Circular setting new guidelines for Magna Carta benefits which will reduce most benefits of health workers.

“The government, DOH and DBM are giving us the run-around. They mouth universal health care, but are actually starving us health workers and making poor patients pay for public health services. This is hazardous to health workers and people’s health!” Ebesate said.

Health workers will hold a series of actions which will peak on President Aquino’s 3^nd SONA.#