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A community health worker in Negros Occidental was wounded when fired upon by unidentified motorcycle-riding men in Barangay Manlacahoc, Sipalay City on Feb. 23. The attack on Ronaldo Capitania came on the heels of the arrest of the 43 health workers in Morong, Rizal, on Feb. 6.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
The affidavits of the 43 health workers and the medical records from the doctors that examined some of them narrate tales of interrogation, torture and other abuses.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
“After the warrantless arrests, the health workers were denied legal counsel and subjected to sleep deprivation and repeated interrogation while blindfolded and handcuffed. Some were tortured and sexually harassed. Are these the alleged feats that the AFP now honors?” decried Dr. Darby Santiago, chairperson of the Health Alliance for Democracy.
By MARYA SALAMAT
In the Philippines, the bulk of employed health workers and professionals are in the public sector. But over the years, the effect of government neglect on health, such as low wages and deplorable working conditions of health workers, coupled with the government’s active labor export policy, have combined to shrink the number of the country’s employed health professionals and workers.
By RONALYN V. OLEA
Before the Morong 43, community doctors and health workers serving in rural areas have been the targets of attacks that range from murder, assassination attempts, raid and strafing to filing of fabricated charges and other forms of harassment.
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Jane was born with a positive point of view. “Jane is the type of person who would always smile even if she has problems," her mother said. "Whenever I have a problem, she would always say, ‘You can handle it, Ma.’ That is why despite what they are going through she is always smiling and her morale is high. It’s as if we the relatives are the ones in jail.”
By MARYA SALAMAT
“She is a community health worker who wanted to help people with medical needs. She and others like her painstakingly reach out to the poor and in farflung areas. They go out of their way to do sacrifices without asking for much in return.”
By MARYA SALAMAT
The nurse who has been working for 18 years at the Jose Reyes Memorial with good service record as attested to by the hospital itself suddenly became a member of the New People's Army, according to the military. He was there, the military alleged, not to train health workers how to save lives but how to make bombs.
Led by the group Hustisya!, the protesters were by the wall of the Camp Aguinaldo gate, posting blue cutouts of doves printed with the name of the 43 detainees, when the soldiers hit them with a water cannon.
By ARNOLD PADILLA
In a poor country where one out of two people dies without receiving any medical attention, where more than half of the population do not have access to basic health care, community-based health workers who provide needed services to fill this health-care gap should be heralded as heroes, not thrown to jail and tortured.
Related blog post: The AFP is telling us we need more NPA guerrillas
Morong 43: A Day of Defiance
By MARYA SALAMAT
Dr. Alex Montes is a retired surgeon. But even in retirement, he found time to serve the poor through the medical missions he organized and joined and through the trainings he conducted for community health workers and volunteers. Today, he is behind bars -- abused, tortured and humiliated by a regime that is terrified by his passion.
By RENATO REYES JR.
We call on our friends here and abroad to intensify the calls for the release of the 43. We hope that the CA will issue a favorable ruling so that in the near future, the 43 will regain their freedom, be reunited with their families and continue with their work.
By BENJIE OLIVEROS
An illegal arrest backed by lies, the use of torture, denial of visitation rights even from the government’s own Commission on Human Rights, the fabrication of pieces of evidence and witnesses, the refusal to honor the order of the Supreme Court -- all this point to what Makabayan senatorial candidate Satur Ocampo aptly called as a “grand slam day for impunity” and a “classic throwback to the martial law era.”
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