Sharing!

In one of the missalettes distributed for the Mass on Sunday, August 1, among the Intercessory Prayers – the Prayers of the Faithful – was this one:

"May our political leaders and the wealthy among us strive to improve the lot of the poor and the under privileged so that our country may be spared from the specter of class warfare.

"We pray: ‘Lord, let us put our trust in you.’ "

The specter of class warfare. The people of the Philippines, especially the destitute poor, are notoriously docile, patient, long suffering. They are more prone to smile, and to forgive, than to strike back. But the misery of the poor, right now, is so intense, so deep, and so universal that the specter of class warfare – at least on the far horizon – is a real thing. This is what happened in France, during the French Revolution. The poor rose up against the rich, and chopped off as many heads as they could, on the guillotine.

Millions are being spent to convince the world that the cause of poverty is population. This is totally, completely, scientifically false. There never was a population explosion. We could put all the people now living on the face of the earth in the tiny State of Massachusetts. We could put all the space that human beings are now using – all the cities and towns, all the parks, all the roads, all the golf courses, all the farms – into the State of Texas.

And we are producing enough food to sustain five times the number of people now living on the earth. Shiploads of pigs are being dumped into the sea, to keep the price up. Milk is poured into the ocean, to keep the price up. Farmers are paid not to plant, and not to harvest, to keep the price up.

Our problem is not population. It is greed. Too few are hoarding great wealth. And too many are living in misery, in pain, in hunger, because they are destitute

The answer to poverty is not population control. It is sharing. Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales put his finger on the pulse of the Philippines when he launched his "Pondo ng Pinoy". He is encouraging every Filipino to share 25 centavos every day with those who are in need. His ultimate objective is not money for the poor. It is a sense of brotherhood. It is a deep conviction, a feeling in the marrow of our bones that we belong to each other. It is what our Lord said two thousand years ago on the hills of Galilee: "Little children, love one another, as I have loved you." It is sharing, with a will, because we want to help each other.

The heartening thing is that many of those who have a reasonable amount of God’s gifts in this world really believe in sharing. Only last year the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines established the PHAPCares Foundation, to donate medicines – free of charge – to the poor. This is their mission:

"We are committed to a sustainable and effective partnership with government and other organizations to uplift the health status of poor Filipinos by improving their access to essential quality medicines and health care services."

They are serious about this. They have a membership of 64 pharmaceutical companies. Their program aims to distribute 100 million pesos worth of medicines, annually, as donations to indigent patients, through 72 government hospitals, nation wide. They will also donate medicines to selected Non Government Organizations and to Charity Hospitals.

In September of the year 2003 PHAPCares signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Health jointly to implement the "Medicine for Indigents Program." This Program will adhere strictly to the Guidelines of the World Health Organization on Drug Donations, which are:

• Maximum benefit to the recipient.

• Respect for the preferences and for the authority of the recipient.

• No double standards between the quality of medicines sold in the market and the quality of those medicines which are donated to the poor.

• Effective communication between the donor and the recipient.

The Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines, founded in 1946, has been engaged in various outreach programs, as an expression of the pharmaceutical sector’s corporate social responsibility. It has provided financial support to doctors moving to rural areas where no medical facilities previously existed. It has supported the polio program of the Department of Health and responded to appeals for medicines, especially in times of calamities.

Directing the activities of PHAPCares Foundation are President Edwin D. Feist and Chief Executive Officer Leo P. Wassmer, Jr. They organized the PHAPCares Foundation in the year 2003.

Edwin Feist is also the President and Chief Executive Officer of Abbot Laboratories. Leo Wassmer was the Chief Executive Officer of Eli Lilly Philippines for many years. In 1990 he became the Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines, then served as President of PHAP for seven consecutive terms. He is a Member of the Board of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations, based in Geneva.

The help given by PHAPCares sometimes makes all the difference between life and death. For instance, 14 year old Maricris Bahoy, of Marikina, was running a high fever. At Rodriguez Hospital in Concepcion, Marikina, she was found to have water in her lungs. She needed better facilities than they had at Rodriguez Hospital.

In Quirino Memorial Center, Maricris was diagnosed with pneumonia and septicemia, infection of the blood. In the ICU, she was comatose for three days, critical, dying. The medicines prescribed by the doctors in Quirino Center were not available. The doctors told her father that, without the needed medicines, she would not survive.

He appealed to PHAPCares. It was not standard procedure for them to attend to individual indigent patients. Their donations of medicine are usually coursed through the Department of Health. But PHAPCares issued a call for help among the pharmaceutical companies.

The response was overwhelming. The needed medicines came in. Maricris was in the ICU for two full weeks, and in Quirino Memorial Medical Center for a month. She came off the critical list. She gradually recovered, went home, and back to school. She has reached her fifteenth birthday.

This is not an isolated occurrence. The poor, living in squatters’ shacks, do not even try to go to a hospital, because they have no money. They have no hope of seeing a doctor or a nurse. The medicines they use are prescribed by the clerk in the drug store. They die in their squatter’s shack.

A charity hospital – whether it is run by the government, or by a religious order, or by a private organization – is a blessing to the poor. And if the medicine they need can be given to them free of charge, it is not only a gift of medicine – it is a gift of life!

And when those responsible for the gift stand all alone before God to be judged, He will say to them,

"So long as you have done it

to the least of these, my little ones –

you have done it to Me!"