Catanduanes Forum

By JENNY F. MANONGDO and LESLIE ANN G. AQUINO

February 15, 2010, 7:45pm

The medical situation in the countryside might suffer a bleak future as the arrest of 43 health workers in Morong, Rizal early this month may discourage future medical practitioners from going to doctor-less areas, the medical community said Monday.

“This incident comes at a time when it is most difficult to convince and encourage health workers to serve in the rural areas where there is a severe need for health services,” said Dr. Bu Castro, spokesman of the Alliance of All Health Organizations of the Nation (AAHON) and the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) during a forum at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine (UPCM).

Leaders of various health organizations including the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA), Association of Philippine Medical Colleges (PMA) and the University Student Council of UP Manila banded together to denounce the military’s detention of the so-called Morong 43 who were arrested during a medical training mission in Rizal province last February 6.

The arrested health workers were conducting a seminar in a private resthouse owned by Dr. Melecia Velmonte, infectious disease expert of the Philippine General Hospital and professor Emeritus of UPCM.

UPCM also launched “Task Force 43,” a group seeking the release of the detained medical workers.

Dr. Alberto Roxas, dean of UPCM, said the military has endangered the vision and mission of the state university’s College of Medicine which requires its graduates to return and serve in their communities under the Regionalization and Return of Service programs.

“Our mission and vision is to have our graduates serve in communities with no doctors…In less than 10 years, 480 doctors will graduate from the university,” Roxas said.

“Because of (the arrest of the 43 health workers), our doctors might develop fear in going to communities,” he added.

Ramon Lorenzo R. Guinto, chairman of the University Student Council, said the incident has spawned fears among his peers who will soon join the medical workforce.

“Today, a doctor who traverses mountains in the provinces can be easily accused of being an NPA or a rebel, and gatherings such as health trainings like the one held in Morong can be planted with guns and grenades and tagged as a bomb-making activity. Worse, health workers can now be arrested and abducted without due process, or gunned down, or even buried alive,” Guinto said.

The student leader said they are now having second thoughts on pursuing their annual global health course for medicine which is usually conducted in Velmonte’s resthouse.

A relative of one of the detained workers claimed the latter were “tortured” by the military as he showed a picture of his kin’s wrists bearing red marks due to tight handcuffs.

The health worker’s kin, who asked not to be named, also said his father was forcibly made to admit that he is a member of the New People’s Army (NPA) through electrocution using probes in the head aside from being punched in the stomach with wooden sticks.

The military has publicly denied accusations that they inflicted pain in the detained medical workers.

The Philippines is still grappling with the inequity of health practitioners especially in the rural areas as many doctors and nurses opt to pursue a lucrative career abroad.

Dr. Portia Fernandez-Marcelo, UPCM vice-chief of Community-Oriented Medical Education Unit, warned that the situation in the rural areas could take a turn for the worse if community health workers no longer choose to serve in far-flung areas.

The arrest by the military of the 43 health workers has also drawn the attention of the World Council of Churches (WCC).

No less than the WCC general secretary, Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, wrote a letter to President Arroyo asking for the immediate release of those detained.

Tveit wrote the letter following reports of torture being inflicted on those held.

"I am distressed by the reported news that the detainees have been subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment amounting to torture and that they have been deprived of their basic human rights while in custody," he said in his February 11 letter.
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/243663/health-groups-assail-arrest-morong-43