PRESIDENTIAL bet Rodrigo Duterte was a no-show in a planned meeting with several indigent patients of the Philippine General Hospital in Manila on Tuesday afternoon.
The mayor of Davao City failed to catch up with his party at the PGH because of a previous meeting, said Omeng Maglangit, Senator Aquilino Pimentel III’s media relations officer.
But his running mate, vice presidential candidate Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, led the dialogue with the patients, which was part of the Duterte-Cayetano Ronda Serye listening tour.
“We have been seeing on TV that all Filipinos are covered by PhilHealth insurance, that there is zero-billing [in the hospitals] and all hospitals are fully equipped,” Cayetano said.
“Now is your chance to speak out about your plight.”
Cayetano pledged to end corruption to help achieve universal health care and to enforce the anti-hospital deposit law.
“Because of disorder and corruption, there is also no systematic health-care services for the people,” Cayetano said.
“According to experts, six out of 10 Filipinos die without seeing a doctor. Private hospitals do not welcome poor patients because they do not have the money. They go to public hospitals that lack facilities.”
In a statement, Cayetano cited a 2014 Global Financial Integrity study showing the country’s economy was cheated of $132.9 billion or over P6 trillion in illicit money outflows from corruption in the past five decades, incurring losses of over P357 billion yearly on the average.
If elected, he said, he would push for the full coverage of the Philippine Health Insurance Co. and full implementation of PhilHealth’s zero-billing services.
He also promised to build more tertiary hospitals in the countryside and enforce Republic Act 8344 or the Anti-Hospital Deposit Law.
“Where the present government has failed on its promises, I will deliver,” Cayetano said.
“By cleansing the government of corruption, we will be able to provide our people with better and more social services and programs like the universal health-care coverage.’’