‘The other pandemic’

In the whirlwind of the budgetary hearings in the 19th Congress on the proposed 2023 General Appropriations Act (GAA), no lawmaker and even officials at the Department of Health (DOH) were available to sit down with us to discuss the so-called “other pandemic” killing Filipinos every day. Top officials of the DOH, led by officer-in-charge undersecretary Rosario Vergeire, spent almost the whole day at the Batasan Pambansa in Quezon City last Monday in defending their proposed budget of P301 billion for next year.

We sent out an invitation to Vergeire a week before our Kapihan sa Manila Bay breakfast news forum which we hold every Wednesday morning at the Café Adriatico in Remedios Circle in Malate, Manila. Vergeire replied only last Tuesday, but apologized she could not make it, citing her “busy schedule.” Lo and behold, Vergeire’s “busy schedule” that Wednesday was a ceremonial ribbon-cutting of the Pasig Doctors Medical Center’s molecular laboratory.

Just last week, Vergeire was appealing to Congress to restore the funds for the cancer programs of DOH under the Congress-approved 2022 GAA. These special allocations were mandated under Republic Act (RA) 11215 to be earmarked in the annual GAA. Otherwise known as the National Integrated Cancer Control Act, or NICCA, RA 11215 was signed into law in 2019.

For one, there is P529.2-million Cancer Assistance Fund (CAF) mandated and earmarked in the GAA to fund the cost of cancer treatment and its care-related components, subject to the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of NICCA to be issued by DOH and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Also mandated is a separate amount of P786.9 million for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases (NCD) in the DOH annual budget for the National Integrated Cancer Control Program. As components of this established program, this budget will also be used exclusively for the supportive  and palliative care medicines.

To respond to Vergeire’s appeals to the 19th Congress, we tried to invite instead lawmakers who have been most vocal in advocating to restore the cancer funds in the GAA. But none of them also were available due to the budget hearings they attend to.

But a medical oncologist in Cebu, Dr. Arnold Uson, president of the Philippine Society of Medical Oncology (PSMO), flew all the way to Manila to help push the advocacy in behalf of many cancer-stricken Filipinos needing help from the government. Practicing in two hospitals with cancer institutes in Cebu, Dr.Uson had to flew back that same day to return to his medical duties to his patients.

Joining us also in our discussions is a survivor of breast cancer, former broadcaster Carmelita “Twinkle” Valdez who pleaded for cancer victims, especially for the poor and indigent patients. Speaking from her own experience, Valdez explained how such funding support like those provided for under the NICCA could spell the difference between life or death of the needy cancer patients. Aiding them, Valdez stressed, could give them hope as added arsenal in their battle against cancer that could turn fatal if the long haul treatment is not sustained.

Dr.Uson and Valdez took up the cudgels for cancer-stricken Filipinos as our featured speakers during our Kapihan sa Manila Bay breakfast forum last Wednesday. Both of them rued how cancer patients also suffer “financial catastrophe” devastating also their families by the prohibitive prices of “innovative” cancer medicines and the high medical costs of fighting this life-threatening illness.

Earlier, lawmakers questioned the DOH and DBM for the delayed release of its IRR of the NICCA. But when the IRR finally came out, not a single centavo was allocated for its intended purpose under NICCA.

Given the limited resources of the government, Dr.Uson cited, both fund programs covered only eight “priority” cancer types. Aside from being the more “treatable cancer,” Dr.Uson noted, the eight “priority” cancer types are also the “most common” among Filipinos. According to him, these eight cancer types also have the highest morbidity and mortality in the Philippines. These, he enumerated in this order are: breast cancer, lung cancer; head and neck cancer; gynecologic cancer; colorectal cancer; prostate and renal cancer; childhood cancer; and blood cancer like leukemia.

In the Philippines, 189 of every 100,000 Filipinos are afflicted with cancer, while four Filipinos die of cancer every hour, or 96 patients every day.

Quoting a post-graduate webinar held in Cebu last week, Dr. Uson, echoed the warning of much deadly cancer illnesses as “the other pandemic” that have been left unattended for the past two years since outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines in March, 2020.

No less than President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) declared it is not only the COVID-19 pandemic that will be the basis of his choosing the new DOH Secretary.

In a sit-down interview at Malacanang aired last Tuesday, PBBM pointed out: “We have to remember that the DOH is not about COVID alone. It’s about public health in general.” PBBM noted with concern that dengue rates are climbing; cases of monkeypox infection broke through in our country, and that the Philippines now has the second highest HIV rate of infection in the world.

“There are many other elements to the DOH. That’s why until we finalize the structure of what – we just have to keep it functioning and finalize the structure,” the Chief Executive added. He disclosed “consultants” are helping him to put the new structure of the DOH. He stopped short though who these “consultants” are, except saying his new DOH Secretary will come from their ranks.

As the agency in charge of implementing the NICCA, the President must remind the new Health Secretary about the DOH mandates to also give priority to “the other pandemic.” To this end, the DOH must ensure “innovative” cancer medicines and affordable medical care services become more accessible to all Filipinos. For now, cancer victims could only pray to God for a miracle.