Mental hospital workers decry lot sale

Health workers at the National Center for Mental Health (NCMH) are up in arms over the government’s move to sell a large portion of the Welfareville lot in Mandaluyong City where the facility sits.

Around 100 NCMH health workers held a rally at the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) office in Quezon City and at the Department of Health (DOH) office in Manila to kick off a series of protest actions against the sale of the property.

Emma Manuel, president of the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW), said that the sale will lead to displacement of the 2,000 health workers and 4,000 patients of NCMH.

"The DSWD is bidding out the property. The area will eventually be commercialized at the expense of the health workers who have been partners of the government is rendering health services especially during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic and patients who need special care because of their conditions," she noted.

The Welfareville lot actually covers 118 hectares. But over four hectares now houses the DSWD-run orphanage Nayon ng Kabataan, schools, day care and road networks so only around 113 hectares are now up for sale.

Manuel maintained the government wanted to sell the property to pave the way for the commercialization of the Welfareville lot.

"The outright sale underscores the fact that this government is not interested in safeguarding the welfare of the mentally ill patients but more because of what the government can gain from the property ..... The sale to big local and foreign capitalists is the easiest and fastest way to accumulate funds to pay the government’s foreign debts," she added.

But according to Director Suzette Agcaoili, head of DSWD’s Assets and Management, the sale is mandated under Republic Act 5260 that was approved in 1968 during the Marcos administration.

The property is under the name of the Insular Government of Manila but the Social Welfare Administration, now the DSWD became the executor of the sale.

Agcaoili said that under RA 5260, the sale is in fulfillment of the agreement between the Philippine government and the various agency of the United Nations, including the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization "to disperse and decentralize its Welfareville Institutions and to undertake other steps to upgrade child welfare services."

The agreement complements with a United Nations Convention that calls for the protection of the children’s rights with which the Philippines is a signatory.

"Section 2 of the law states that ‘the proceeds of said sale shall be exclusively used and expended for the purchase of appropriate sites, construction of buildings and facilities, acquisition of furniture and equipment including vehicles, necessary for the establishment of a national children’s home institutions and community services for children in various parts of the Philippines," she added.

She said that the establishment of facilities for children supplements the provisions in the Early Children Care Development law which requires the government to come up with programs that will protect the rights of the children.

"There are many abused and street children who need care. With the proceeds of the sale, we can come up with more health and education programs for children. We can have intervention programs to ensure their protection against abuses," she added.

Under the plan, the DSWD will initially bid out Welfareville’s Parcel 1 comprising of 71.8 hectares. Parcel 2, which covers 36.4 hectares, will be bidded out next month.

Agcaoili said that NCMH employees and patients would not be displaced because they can be absorbed by regional hospitals which are required under the Presidential Decree 1541 which seeks the decentralization of mental health services.

The decree mandates the DOH to put up psychiatric wards in all regional hospitals to ensure that patients who need confinement will be near their families.

She added that the DSWD cannot do anything but implement the provision of RA 5260.

"It‘s in the law and unless we amend this law, we can’t do anything but implement it. Nobody is above the law. I am also an optimistic person. We can look at it at the brighter side. We can help many children. Welfareville is also a high-end area and (selling it) will contribute to the economic growth of our country," she said.

Agcaoili assured that proper accounting and auditing will be observed in the process of the bidding that is scheduled next week.

But Manuel maintained that regional hospitals lack the funds to sustain psychiatric facilities so "patients find themselves going back to Mandaluyong."

She claimed that there is a plan to relocate NCMH somewhere in Bonoan Pangasinan and Tala, Caloocan City but the facility will be smaller and can accommodate only 1,000 of the 4,000 patients of the NCMH.

"Those who cannot be accommodated in the general and medical or provincial hospitals will have to go to the private hospitals that charge very expensive rates. Others who cannot afford to consult or check in the hospitals will have to be contented with home care. While seemingly appealing, these pose a problem as families generally do not know how to provide the kind of care that the patients need," Manuel added.