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.”
Category: Health
Gary Liberal: Dedicated Head Nurse, Committed Unionist Now Finds Self Under the Gun
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.
Tribal Encounter: Detained Mangyan Health Worker Receives First Visitor, an Igorot
Media Release February 20, 2010 Quezon City (Feb 20) — It was an emotional meeting between KATRIBU President Beverly Longid and Ray-om Among, a 22-year old Mangyan who is detained in Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal with 42 other health workers. The visit was the first for Among since she was arrested on February 6…
Soldiers Hose Down Relatives, Supporters of Morong 43
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.
The AFP is telling us we need more NPA guerrillas
The AFP tries to malign the 43 health workers by calling them communists. Instead, the military is suggesting to the country that NPA guerrillas are dedicated and seriously serving the people, against all odds. The AFP could win its case in the Court of Appeals but it would lose the war against the NPA and public opinion.
Community Health Workers: Unsung Heroes of a Failed Health System
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
Slideshow: A Day of Defiance by Morong 43
Morong 43: A Day of Defiance
Alex Montes: A Doctor to the People, Hurt and Broken
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.
Doctors, Medical and Health Groups Refute Military on Morong 43
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
and RONALYN V. OLEA
Several medical and health associations expressed outrage today over the arrest, detention and alleged torture of 43 health workers. In a press conference at the University of the Philippines College of Medicine in Manila, officials of these groups refuted the military’s claim that the 43 are communist rebels who were undergoing bomb training when they were arrested in a raid on Feb. 6.
Notes from Morong 43 Hearing: AFP Now Trapped in Its Own Lies
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.
The Case of the Morong 43, a Fight Against Impunity
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.”