Lepers picket House

Scores of patients from a leprosarium picketed the House of Representatives yesterday after the government slashed the allocation for health services.

Romy Sistual, president of the Zone One Tondo Organization (ZOTO), Tala Chapter, said the government should feel the pain patients have been suffering for years "in order to realize the illogical and untimely budget cut."

"Some 2,500 patients are likely to be affected by this budget cut. Without consideration, the government is now abdicating its mandate of protecting the people," Sistual said

Congress had slashed the health budget for the year 2003 from P11.5 billion to P11.4 billion.

The militant group Sanlakas expressed similar sentiments , saying that the government is "terrorizing" the people through the series of budget cuts on public services.

"This proves the government’s militarist character. GMA cannot build her strong republic on the hollow ground of terrorism, " Sanlakas president Wilson Fortaleza said." While the campaign against terrorism always gets the lion’s share, the people find themselves starving with the remaining little amount of budget. These are not the fine stones of the strong republic people are expecting from GMA. These are nothing but bricks of her incompetent and lousy mode of governance," Fortaleza said.

The former Tala leprosarium, now known as the Dr. Jose Rodriguez Memorial Hospital has been identified for privatization by government planners. The other day, around 50 leprosarium patients blocked a Caloocan City government team from demolishing part of the Tala Leprosarium Hospital building. – Romel Bagares