Manila: A health workers’ organisation criticised authorities for their inaction in solving the string of murders victimising doctors, while singling out the health department for its inability to impose stringent measures to protect physicians.
The Health Alliance for Democracy (Head) in a statement took the health department to task for not doing enough to stop and solve the killing of doctors, which has been going on since the start of the year.
“The Department of Health is just as responsible for the deaths of our doctors by refusing to implement stringent measures to protect them,” Dr Joseph Carabeo, Head’s secretary-general, said following the September 14 killing of Dr Vicente Soco.
Soco, the provincial health officer of Dinagat, Surigao del Norte in Mindanao, was shot and killed by a gunman on a motorcycle while tending to a family-owned gas station.
While Soco’s death could be dismissed as a criminal act that occurs in a country where killings are increasingly becoming normal, Carabeo said the murder seem to be something out of the ordinary.
“Soco is the sixth doctor to be killed this year, after Dreyfuss Perlas, of Lanao del Norte; Jaja Sinolinding, of Cotabato; George Repique, of Cavite, were shot earlier. The Department of Health also reported the death of a doctor from ARMM [Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao], while a doctor from Tarlac was also killed. All these [cases] remain unresolved.
“This is still the effect of the culture of impunity that reigns. Human rights [and] human lives seem to be of little value under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte,” he said.
Carabeo also said the health department (DOH) should take a firm position on the matter instead of simply issuing statements condemning the killings. “The DOH should make a firm and unequivocal stand regarding the protection of all health workers, especially those working at the front lines,” he asserted.
The murders of doctors started with the killing in March of Dr Perlas, a Doctors to the Barrios volunteer who served as Municipal Health Officer in Sapad, Lanao del Norte in Mindanao. He was killed by a gunman on a motorcycle.
Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial had condemned the killing but had not done much beyond that, Carabeo said.
“Until now They have no clear position as to whether they will protect and seek justice for their health workers. As the bodies of these doctors pile up, for as long as no one is held accountable, these statements insult the families and patients of the victims,” he said.
