Standards required

Speaker Bebot Alvarez and Senate President Koko Pimentel should get together during the Christmas holidays and find a way of rationalizing congressional investigations in aid of legislation in order to protect them from “User Friendly” manipulators and publicity seekers.

I realize the importance and value of transparency, but there have been many instances when accusations and insinuations that are made in the halls of Congress and the Senate floor would not stand in a court of law. In fact I have noticed that many people and interest groups have skipped or avoided going to court and opted to bring their complaints and accusations to Congress believing that Congressmen and Senators can be their “Replacement Killers” or attack dogs. The bottom line in my mind is that if you sincerely and truly believe that a crime or injustice has been committed then you should have the conviction and willingness to go to court.

After receiving so much information and watching the anti-Dengue Vaccine powerpoint presented in Congress by “Mr. Person-known-to-me,” I got the impression that the accusations or insinuations made were quite serious and if true and with basis, were reason enough to go to the Ombudsman, the Sandiganbayan etc. But when I asked around I learned that none of the people involved in the procurement or development of the dengue vaccination program had been charged in court.

Instead, the campaigners had gone to Senator Dick Gordon who ended up red faced after belatedly discovering he and his staff did not get the whole truth or half the truth on the issue. With Gordon pissed off, the “Contras” marched off to the House of Representatives as champions of Public Health where they once again presented their version of reality.

The question now is: How systematic and how strict are the two houses of Congress when it comes to calling or allowing “Congressional or Senate Investigations?” I don’t want to think that such events are now bordering on “whimsical” or just because a member of the House feels like it. Worst of all is if such investigations regularly occur “because I can” call for one.

What is to stop a member of Congress especially a committee chairman from starting an investigation to get even with a current or former government official for not approving his or her request made with a department or agency, for example the DOH or PhilHealth. What sort of screening process is done internally to determine the validity, credibility or agenda if any of a person or group of persons appearing before Congress or the Senate? What scientific, legal, or investigative documentation does Congress or the Senate require from people making claims or accusations against others especially against government and government officials? If the members of both houses demand that they be addressed with respect and honorable, should they not demand as much for their co-equal colleagues in the Civil service?

In a time when there is a growing band of “Contras” in the political landscape and when selfish unpatriotic individuals are pitting elected officials against each other, there is a need to determine the standards and to set the standards for those who would assail people and government before Congress. That standard should first be met by those who would be called “Honorable.”

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When Paulyn Ubial first spoke about her plans for universal health care, I immediately wrote in my column that I would support her through the column because I too believe in universal health care. Unfortunately I was too rash, too optimistic and clearly ignorant about Ubial and her critics.

Waiting to be “Secretary of Health” Paulyn Ubial may have to wait a lot longer to get the prize. Just being the choice of PRRD for the DOH is no guarantee as more and more information from her critics start to come out. I’ve already mentioned claims or accusations that Ubial has given out verbal orders to withdraw dengue vaccines worth P500 million which could result in mishandling and storage of the vaccine, thereby rendering them void or expired. Now I hear that Congressman Harry Roque is raising criticisms from within the DOH that Ubial is known as the junket queen or the traveling doctor for her unusually many trips that has reached the point that it made her ineffective.

Ubial’s critics add that her mobile lifestyle even cost her the promotion for Undersecretary that she so wanted. As a result Ubial reportedly holds a grudge against former DOH Secretary Janet Garin and Dr. Kenneth Hartigan-Go who got the title of Usec instead of her. Now the question is, if Ubial failed to get “Usec” during P-Noy’s term, what new qualifications did she earn to be promoted two levels up to become Secretary of Health?

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Most people don’t really see what would be attractive or worth fighting for to become a director or head of PhilHealth. There’s lot of money to be made by hospitals, clinics, doctors and drug manufacturers depending on what the board or officials of PhilHealth allows. If the PhilHealth ends up in the hands of an idiot or someone who owes favors to others, he could in principle design, align, or price treatments, medications, confinements and procedures so vested interest groups could make a killing.

During the P-Noy administration, insiders discovered and exposed how hundreds of senior citizens were given “cataract surgery” or procedure even when they did not need it or could have avoided it. Much earlier, I was told by my friend who’s also a physician that D&C or “raspa” became a popular treatment or procedure and was eventually exposed as another moneymaking scheme of bad gynecologists. I recently learned that the most “popular” procedure or treatment now is dialysis given the national disaster caused by bad salty diets, UTI due to poor sanitation and personal hygiene. So there has been pressure by a handful of wicked operators and specialists for the PhilHealth to increase the budget. I suppose, the same would apply with dengue that costs the country P4.5 billion. That ladies and gentlemen is why some people will make a deal with the devil to get the PhilHealth.

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