📷: Health Workers Party-list | FB
Health workers staged a “Black Hearts Day” protest in Mendiola on the eve of Valentine’s Day that forms part of the ongoing Black Friday Protests leading up to the EDSA People Power anniversary.
Carrying black heart symbols to signify anger and grief, the protesters denounced what they described as worsening conditions in the health sector and the Marcos Jr. administration’s neglect of workers’ rights to fair wages, secure jobs, and adequate benefits.
Protesters from progressive health organizations accused the government of wasting trillions in public funds through corruption while underfunding healthcare.
In a statement, the Coalition for People’s Right to Health and the Council for Health and Development stressed that despite the passage of the Universal Health Care Law, access to free basic services remains elusive.
The groups said that out-of-pocket spending still accounts for 42.7% of national health expenditures, forcing Filipinos to shoulder the cost of medicines and laboratory tests.
Only 35% of hospitals nationwide are public, and just 26,860 barangay health stations serve 42,011 barangays, many without adequate personnel due to low pay and grueling hours.
The country averages 16.6 health workers per 10,000 population in average, with doctor-to-patient and nurse-to-patient ratios far below World Health Organization standards.
“The ratio of doctors per patients are 1:21,981 and 1:5,402 for nurses, far from WHO recommendation’s 1:1,000.”
The consequences are stark: five in ten Filipinos die without medical attention, while preventable diseases like tuberculosis and pneumonia remain leading causes of death.
Protesters linked these failures to broader social injustices, poverty wages, landlessness among farmers, foreign plunder of natural resources, and imperialist military presence, all while oligarchs and bureaucrat capitalists profit from funds meant for social services.
Health workers and advocates demanded a ₱36,000 entry salary for public and private health workers and ₱50,000 for nurses and allied professionals, alongside the passage of House Bill 208 to establish a free, comprehensive, and progressive national public health care system.
They urged the government to allocate 5% of GDP to health, review the implementation of the Universal Health Care Law and PhilHealth, and investigate corruption in the health sector.
The rally underscored a resounding call: organize communities, strengthen health workers’ unions, and fight for a public health system that serves the people, not the profiteers. (ZIA LUNA)
