Health workers still on the streets

Some 200 members of the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) and disgruntled employees of the Department of Health (DOH) picketed yesterday at the DOH compound on Rizal Avenue, Manila protesting the alleged appointment of Susan Pineda-Mercado as the new Secretary of Health.

However, outgoing Health Secretary Alberto Romualdez denied that Mercado has been appointed as his replacement.

Bearing placards saying "No to SPM as Health Secretary!," "Romualdez Out, Susy Quit! and "No EO 102," the protesters staged the rally from about 8:30 a.m. until 12 noon and reportedly went to Malacañang in the afternoon to vent their opposition against Mercado and EO 102.

The protesters accused Mercado, who resigned as DOH Undersecretary for external affairs on Saturday, of strongly pushing for the implementation of Executive Order 102 redirecting the functions and operations of the DOH. EO 102 was approved on March 24, 1999.

"We cannot accept Mercado as the new Health Secretary. We have been against her since the tenure of Sen. Juan Flavier and we will continue staging protest actions until we are sure that she doesn’t become, or should she become, the new Health Secretary. EO 102 is the last straw and we can not allow this to threaten the welfare of health workers," AHW national president Emma Manuel, said.

They also decried government efforts under Executive Order 102 to privatize government hospitals like the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, Philippine Heart Center, Jose Reyes Memorial Medical Center, San Lazaro Hospital and Tondo Medical Center saying this will somehow require poor patients to pay for some of the hospitals’ services.

About 110 employees of the Malaria unit and the Bureau of Research and Laboratories echoed Manuel’s sentiments and have long been questioning the legality of EO102. They also lamented that some of them were demoted and their salaries reduced, contrary to Romualdez’s assurance that there would be no diminution in ranks and salaries.

A Manila court recently approved their petition for a temporary restraining order for them not to be included in the deployment scheme and a status quo has been declared.

Malaria Employees and Welfare Association (MEWA) president Ramon Sulla showed a copy of the new placement organization where he pointed out that majority of the 50 employees of the malaria unit were demoted and their salaries reduced.

He cited as an example a salary grade 18 employee who was demoted to salary grade eight. He used to receive a salary of P16,000 but now he will just be getting roughly P9,000. He further said that Section 1 of the Reorganization Law (R.A. 6656) protecting the security of tenure of government workers was also violated.

"We understand that the government needs to cut costs but please, not at our expense and that of poor Filipinos. We have families to feed and some of us who have been working for the DOH for so many years don’t foresee a bright future because we aren’t sure if we’ll still receive the benefits that are due to us because we no longer have security of tenure," Sulla said.

The protesters further claimed that while one of the objectives of the restructuring is to cut government costs on redundant positions, Romualdez, however, is allegedly hiring outsiders to top positions in the department.

"If Romualdez really wants to reduce the number of personnel, why is he hiring outsiders to high positions when he can choose from among us to do the jobs required," they lamented.

The DOH originally had 2,900 employees Except for 110 employees, the rest of the 1,700 health workers have been deployed in various Metro Manila retrained hospitals, the National Capital Region and regional offices and facilities leaving the remaining 1,200 in the central office.

When Romualdez assumed office in 1998, he vowed to reengineer the whole central office by reducing the personnel and sending them to provincial and regional offices and hospitals where he said they are more needed.