Tags: dr. alex montes

Media Release 21 March 2010 There is no official statement from either the Department of Health or the Philippine Medical Association stating that the 43 detainees are not health workers. According to Health Alliance for Democracy, neither the DOH nor the PMA has made any such statement and that once again, the desperate Armed Forces…

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

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.