By Earl Jed Roque – PNA
MANILA — President Rodrigo R. Duterte understands the plight of poor patients and is sincere on reforming the Philippine healthcare sector, Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Undersecretary Lorraine Marie Badoy said.
In her address to parents and child patients at the PCOO Christmas gift-giving at the Philippine Orthopedic Center (POC) on Thursday, Badoy said the President “fights for the poor” in order for them to have a comfortable life and good healthcare.
“For the first time, nagkaroon tayo ng Pangulo na talagang totoo sa atin. Ano ba yung mga pangulo natin dati? ‘Di ba mga magnanakaw tsaka walang pakialam sa atin? Meron tayong Pangulo ngayon na may pakialam sa ganito (For the first time, we have a President who is true to us. What kinds of Presidents did we have before? Aren’t they plunderers and do not care for us? We now have a President who cares for us),” Badoy said.
Badoy, a medical doctor by profession, vowed that reforms are being undertaken for faster delivery of medical services to the poor.
“All of them are waiting for semento, things that are easily solved if we have the funds and the will to do it, and the President is such a person,” Badoy said in an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
Data from the POC showed that about 99 percent of their patients are indigent and subsidized by either charities or PhilHealth.
“Talagang this is (really) a hospital for the poor and it’s all over the country, meron dito mga galing Mindanao (there are those even from Mindanao) because it’s the only center that’s very specialized,” Badoy said.
Badoy said passing federalism would “definitely” help in faster delivery of health services.
“They don’t need to travel all the way here,” Badoy said.
Badoy said the POC is close to her heart because her late mother used to visit the said hospital.
POC medical center chief Jose Pujalte Jr. said Badoy is a regular visitor at the center even before her stint as PCOO undersecretary.
“Nung wala pa siya sa gobyerno, yung mga pasyente at bantay namin na lumpo at paralisado, minsan ay sinusundo niya at dinadala sa PETA para manood ng dula (When she was not yet in government, she occasionally brings patients and their guardians to PETA to watch plays),” Pujalte said.
Badoy, together with officers from the PCOO-attached Philippine Information Agency, spent time and gave early Christmas gifts to about 70 to 80 child patients presently confined in POC.