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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Military Intervention? By Antonio C. Abaya Written August 16, 2005 For the Standard Today, August 18 issue Did anyone really believe that President Gloria Arroyo was going to resign last July, when everyone and his grandmother were storming the heavens and all the crannies of hell demanding her resignation?�. When the Hyatt 10 abandoned her listing ship, when erstwhile allies like Franklin Drilon and Cory Aquino, and some Roman Catholic bishops and some members of the Makati Business Club and other business organizations, aside from the hakot mobs-for-hire of Jejomar Binay and the predictable wound-up automatons of the communist movement, all said she should? In February 1986, Ferdinand Marcos did not resign from the presidency. He and his family (plus Danding Cojuangco) fled from Malacanang on board US military helicopters to Clark, thence by US military transport plane to exile in Hawaii, where he died a few years later. He fled because rampaging mobs, many of them participants in the People Power revolt of EDSA 1, were descending on Malacanang through Mendiola and other access roads. It was, said the CNN TV anchor, �the closest thing in the 20th century to the Storming of the Bastille.� In January 2001, Joseph Estrada did not resign from the presidency either. He and his family fled from Malacanang on board a motor launch on the Pasig River, bound for his feudal enclave in San Juan. He fled because rampaging mobs, many of them participants in the People Power revolt of EDSA 2, were descending on Malacanang through Mendiola and other access roads. It was, one might add, a humiliating real-life defeat for the swaggering macho man who always triumphed over his enemies in his fantasy films. In May 2001, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo did not resign from the presidency, and neither did she flee from Malacanang, even though rampaging mobs, egged on by the likes of Juan Ponce Enrile and Miriam Defensor-Santiago, were descending on the palace but were stopped at the barricades by troops and riot police loyal to her. So in July-August 2005, without even a rampaging mob descending on Malacanang, without the middle-class massing in their hundreds of thousands at EDSA, why would anyone expect Gloria Arroyo to resign from the presidency or flee from Malacanang? Because the usual suspects said she should? Sticks and stones can break her bones, but words will never hurt her. Even the life-saver that Fidel Ramos threw in her direction, in which she and everyone else in the top rungs of government agree to resign from their positions by February 2006 while a seven-person commission oversees a transition to a parliamentary system, is not likely to dissolve the impasse. While she has publicly accepted the idea of a change-over � since it gives her the excuse to blame the system rather than her own shortcomings for the mess we are in � she has not hinted that she is prepared to resign with everyone else, as envisioned in the Ramos life-saver. More likely she would push for the parliamentary system, but of the French variety �as Marcos did in the 1970s � in which congress morphs into a parliament, with an appointive prime minister, while a strong, nationally elected president is retained. Guess who that president will be. After all, she will likely reason, she was elected president in 2004 to serve until 2010. As the French would say, Plus ca change, plus la meme chose. No matter what other dirt the opposition can dig up against her in the coming weeks and months, whether real or fabricated or a combination of both, if the middle class do not mass in their hundreds of thousands, President Arroyo is not going to resign. And the middle class is not going to mass in their hundreds of thousands because they have no one to rally around or believe in, so morally bankrupt is our brand of cannibalistic politics. The 22nd anniversary of the martyrdom of Ninoy Aquino approaches this Sunday and some middle class groups are planning to mark it with appropriate ceremonies. Would that those ceremonies will spark a prairie fire in the consciousness of the middle class and reawaken in them feelings of moral outrage at the depths of immorality that this only Christian and Catholic country in all Asia has sunk into. Would that these gatherings will overcome the feelings of apathy and cynicism that seem to have dulled the conscience of the middle class, feelings that are the direct result of their extreme disappointment in the evolution of EDSA 1 and EDSA 2 into nothing more than tiresome replays of �more of the same.� Would that this commemoration of Ninoy�s martyrdom will bring to the fore a new set of leaders, men and women who will overcome our feelings of despair and hopelessness, who will inspire us to believe in ourselves again, and who will restore our confidence to build a better future for our children and grandchildren. ***** She will not be impeached either. Her expressed preference for the impeachment process over resignation, stated publicly several times in July and thereafter, was nothing but a dare to those who want her to resign, she knowing fully well that the opposition do not have the numbers to push the impeachment process forward, either in the Lower House or in the Senate. So, impeach me! How can anyone possibly argue with such a simple democratic solution? Those who want to remove President Arroyo but insist that only legal and constitutional processes should be resorted to because, more than anything else in the world, they want to preserve our �democracy,� should tell us what we should do now. The impeachment process is stalled even before it can begin. Even though President Arroyo has publicly endorsed impeachment, her people are doing everything to prevent it from happening. If this is not talking from both sides of the mouth, I don�t know what is. Either we are among the most civilized people on earth, since law is one of the hallmarks of civilization, and we are endlessly debating it. Or we are among the most uncivilized, because of our unique national talent for bending, twisting, stretching, massaging, deforming, emasculating and prostituting the law, thus debasing in a few decades every noble political idea born and nourished in 3,000 years of western civilization. We have more lawyers per square kilometer than any other country on God�s earth. Yet what do we have to show for it? Unabated lawlessness all the way to the halls of Congress, the salas of the judiciary, and the inner sanctum of the presidential palace. The parade of witnesses in the congressional hearings on jueteng and the Garci tapes, who will be the star witnesses in the unlikely event that the impeachment process reaches trial in the Senate, does not encourage any hopes that President Arroyo will ever be found guilty of anything other than a lapse in judgment, for which she has already apologized. Peddling nothing but hearsay and double hearsay, they are themselves people of shady pasts and questionable character - previously involved in extortion, bribery, swindling, illegal gambling, non-payment of huge debts, even murder - whose readiness to recant and retract their own sworn statements speaks volumes of the reliability of their testimonies. ***** Military intervention? Given that President Arroyo will not resign under any circumstances, and given that she will not likely be impeached, what are the options left? The middle class can mass in their hundreds of thousands, with the hope that the military will intervene as it did in 2001 and, under totally different circumstances, in 1986. But military intervention can cut both ways. The new AFP chief-of-staff, Gen. Generoso Senga, is a Gloria appointee. So is the new head of the Army, Maj. Gen. Hermogenes Esperon, who is one of four AFP generals implicated in the Hello Garci tape. The top brass are not likely to support any anti-GMA initiative from the middle class. On the contrary, they may intervene in order to save her. Gringo Honasan, the leading expert on failed coups, is not trusted by the middle class either since his putsches were launched to install in power personages unacceptable to them: Juan Ponce Enrile in 1987, Danding Cojuangco in 1989, and the deposed Joseph Estrada in 2003. So who? We keep hearing of unnamed majors and colonels and brigadiers who are said to be just waiting to launch their intervention. But if the middle class do not mass in their hundreds of thousands and bring into prominence a new set of civil non-trapo leaders with fresh new initiatives in governance, chances are that those unnamed majors and colonels and brigadiers will remain unnamed and will refrain from launching any military intervention. ***** Reactions to [email protected] or ax 824-7642. Other articles in www.tapatt.org OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |
| Reactions to �Military Intervention?� Hi Mr. Abaya, Should have sent you this note last month but better late than never. Very glad to read that the MST publisher who was then in the US interceded to retain your very well read, respectable, although at times caustic, column after you were "fired" by your local Editor-in-Chief. Other RP dailies could have snatched you right away. I like your last write-up, among many others, about Iceland and it's pioneering energy conservation effort and I agree with you that RP should have benefited from it years ago because of its abundance of sugarcane...etc to produce ethanol for cars to run like what the Japanese depended on very much during their RP regime (yes, I was in my early teenage period then and I remember the smell well). But then your very selfish and disruptive RP politicians over there are only interested with their pork barrels and other perks. Keep up your constructive and critical write-ups now that Mr. Ted Benigno of Philippine Star is gone. Enclosed is a copy of my emailed write-up to the Manila Standard Today recently. Conrad G. Javier, MD, [email protected] August 19, 2005 Hunting Valley, Ohio NOTE: Dr. Javier�s article on doctors appears at the end of this Reaction section. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, ... " or we are among the most uncivilized, because of our unique national talent for bending, twisting, stretching, massaging, deforming and prostituting the law, thus debasing in a few decades every noble political idea born and nourished in 3,000 years of western civilization..." You hit the nail right on the head ! It explains why the Philippines is on the lower depths of Dante's Inferno. Thank you for providing a brief and concise explanation of our present predicament. Auggie Surtida, [email protected] Tigbauan, Iloilo, August 19, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Re: The counting of election returns in ballot boxes >Why is it that the simplest solution to a "problem" in arithmetic is >avoided? Isn't re-counting of the Poll Precinct Ballot Boxes of the >May 2004 Elections the simplest solution? >PMCSI , [email protected] >July 14, 2005 >MY REPLY. You obviously do not know that the presidential election canvassing rules, >to which all parties agreed beforehand, do not allow for the opening of ballot boxes, >only the certificates of canvass from the municipios and provincial capitols. Ballot >boxes may be opened and the ballots recounted only when there is an electoral protest. >But the protestant must pay P50 per ballot box opened. The backers of FPJ were >prepared to raise several million pesos for this purpose, but he died before the recount >could begin. The Supreme Court ruled that his widow, Susan Roces, could not take his >place in Mr. Abaya, It is exactly that procedure I was alluding to: "the presidential election canvassing rules, to which the parties agreed beforehand, do not allow for the opening of ballot boxes, only the certificates of canvass from the municipios and provincial capitols", which has perpetrated election fraud committed, using the certificates of canvass tampered with or fabricated for submission to the final canvassing of Congress. Based on the prescribed procedures, upon completion of the counting and the summary at Poll Precint Level, duplicates/exact copies of the same Statement Of Votes (SOVs) are provided to the COMELEC, NAMFREL, and all major political parties. Technically therefore, without any tampering or fabrication of Certificates Of Canvass (COCs), EXACTLY THE SAME TOTALS should be derived by COMELEC, NAMFREL, all major political parties, and CONGRESS at the end of the final canvassing. During the final canvassing of CONGRESS, the protests with regard to specific COCs are based on the SOVs that the protesters have, pinning down specific ballot boxes to be suspected of tampering or fabrication of COCs. It is at that point when such ballot boxes should be opened to resolve the issue, and avoid declaring a candidate as "winner" with the stipulation that an electoral protest can be filed by the "losers". With regard to the Supreme Court ruling, the electoral protest should be filed by the Political Party. Accordingly, even if the particular candidate-protester dies, the re-count MUST be done. The Supreme Court's ruling was a "strawman" argument used to muddle the issue. The issue was not whether Susan Roces may take the place of FPJ as Presidential Candidate. The issue was for a RE-COUNT of the votes cast for the position of President. If only a re-count was allowed by the Supreme Court, it could have been shown that GMA won without any election fraud, then all the brouhaha up to this very day could have been avoided. However, if it is found that election fraud has been committed, then the proper provision "disqualifying the candidate from holding office" in this case Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, is simply applied. If based on the re-count, it would have been shown that FPJ won the Presidency, then with his death, the prescribed provision on Presidential Succession provided for by the Phil. Constitution of 1987 will simply be followed and implemented to the letter. The suspicion is even the Supreme Court is involved in a conspiracy to have Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacanang based on how the electoral protest was mistreated and mishandled. Joseph Midar, [email protected] August 19, 2005 MY REPLY. I sympathize with your cause, but unless the rules are changed in an election reform law, we are stuck with this stupid system. I actually believe GMA won in May 2004, but only by a thin margin, in the voting. See my article �GMA By a Hair� (May 13, 2004) and subsequent articles. The cheating was done by a) padding her winning margin, from about 300,000 to 1.2 million votes; and b) by deliberately dropping four million voters from the Comelec master voters list. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Laban na ! Tigas talaga ng ulo. Bombing Moll, [email protected] August 19, 2005, wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Well. Nice to see that the idea of Gloria not resigning is now being considered - although reluctantly by many. Point of everything is here that many of us don�t CARE if she CHEATED. To feign moral indignation for what she did in a country where practically everyone cheats - in one way or another - is just hypocrisy. And I think were all waking up to that now. NOW CAN WE PLEASE CHANGE TOPIC? Hey I hear the SEA Games are being held here in November. Can we talk about that instead? Carlos Celdran, August 19, 2005 MY REPLY. By your logic, Ferdinand Marcos should not have been kicked out either since what he did - cheating in the snap elections of February 1986, stealing the country blind, killing political opponents � is done by many others, anyway. And by the same logic, Joseph Estrada should not have been deposed either, since getting kickbacks from jueteng is done by so many others also. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hello Mr. Abaya, I just read "Military Intervention?" - your latest analysis which is disguised to suggest to the opposition that the only way to take out GMA is for the military to intervene. For heavens sake, let's stop na all this hot air and discussion about GMA's predicament. Let the lawful process of impeachment go on its merry course without too much potshots and analysis from columnists. And perhaps, lets now focus on really more substantive issues like the looming energy crisis, impact of EVAT on our economy, etc. Sad to say, all the political analysis is no longer constructive. Willy Segovia, [email protected] August 19, 2005 MY REPLY. So now that the �legal process of impeachment� has been tried and blocked by Gloria�s trapo allies, and now that the key witness to the Hello Garci tape has been made to disappear by Gloria�s bureaucrats, what do you suggest? wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, I agree. Politicians will not stop until they fear for their lives. Public censure no longer works. But that does not mean we should just go on with our lives while the politicians ruin our society. It is time we, the middle class, take control before it is too late. Let's mass again and march to rebuild our country for the sake of our children. The failure of EDSA I and EDSA II can be traced to the failure to punish the transgressors. This time, we should make sure that we have a long list to line up the walls before a firing squad, better still, a hanging machine, so future generation will remember. Yours very truly, Virgilio C Leynes, [email protected] August 19, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony: Whether or not the middle class and/or masses emerge to voice their displeasure, the unnamed colonels and major (and a few generals as well as most of the lower ranks) will have no choice but to come out and change GMA and how thing are done. It's not too far off. In recent weeks, the GMA tactics have shifted to more severe methods. To remove evidence of GMA's crimes and intimidate if not actually silence witnesses of these crimes, the AFP, PNP, other agencies of government and other crime syndicates are now deployed to conduct kidnapping, warrantless searches and other activities which are clearly features of a dreaded martial regime. No less than Senate President Frank Drilon, a former Secretary of Justice, has made a comment that we seem to have a de facto martial law. Right now, the victims of this new tactic are mostly civilians like the jueteng witnesses of Archbishop Cruz and other citizens who wish to provide testimony of other crimes (like some Arroyo household help from their Baguio residence). But as the need for cover-ups increase and the GMA agents get more brazen because of the earlier successes of this new hardball stance, some of the unnamed colonels and major will become targets of kidnapping and warrantless search arrests. When that happens in the not-so-distant future (maybe as soon as the next few days or weeks), then these unnamed colonels and major will have no choice but to move - as a matter of their own survival. Jose Osias, [email protected] August 20, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Mr. Abaya, Maybe GMA's role in history will be to provide us with a baptism of blood and fire. EDSA I and EDSA II were very peaceful exercises and did not provide us with catharsis. We need a storming of the Bastille, or something to that effect, in order to cleanse us and shake us out of our complacency. From all accounts, GMA is tough and stubborn. She could be much more obstinate and hard-headed than Marcos or Erap ever were. As Homobono Adaza grudgingly admits, "she is a warrior". It may take a bloodbath to remove her from power. And perhaps that is what this country needs. We need to lose our innocence in order to grow out of this false piety and cringing religiosity. We need a baptism of fire in order to attain maturity and have the courage to take our fate into our hands. We need to realize that, before God disposes, man first proposes. We cannot leave our fate to God without first taking action. Those supposed "revolutions" we went through were child's play. Carl Cid S.M. Inting, [email protected] Cebu City, August 20, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The commemoration of the martyrdom of Ninoy is a must. But most in the middle class will not join because it will be a venue for the resign movement against PGMA as advocated by Gus. That PGMA has "cheated" is still to be proven in the impeachment trial or by the courts. This claim of PGMA cheating is all perceptions and deductions and are allegedly based on very incomplete circumstantial evidences if there are any. Agree with your historical facts and perspective. Roger L. Madrigal, [email protected] August 20, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Sir: It will be very difficult to mobilize the middle class while the mobs conducting mass actions are being led by the jackals of the Left and the hyenas of the Kleptocracy. The middle class is nobody's fool. They may not like GMA, but they won't ask for her head just to have a junta, composed of the lumpen and the proletariat (with a smattering of well-meaning, but gullible, academic and civil society personalities), running the country further to the ground. No Sir! The middle class learned their lesson well from EDSA I, where a clueless Cory Aquino and her theiving friends, relatives and leftist cohorts bungled one golden opportunity after another. Cory's corrupt and incompetent administration left us even more debt-ridden, and bereft of long-term programs, than during the time of The Great Kleptocrat, Ferdinand Marcos. If there is to be military intervention, it has to come from patriots within the military. Unfortunately, we have no code of Bushido in our culture. Marcos and his successors corrupted and politicized our armed forces to the core, just as they corrupted all aspects of society. For a moment, there was hope that Fidel Ramos would be the man on horseback. But he turned out to be as warped and politicized as any trapo. Were we not such a damaged society (like it or not, the term becomes more applicable as the years go by), politicians would not be able to get away with their outrageous shenanigans. Need we commit seppuku in order to rid ourselves of our demons? I hope it does not come to that. But, at the rate we are falling into the abyss, the options left to arrest our decline become more and more drastic. Juan Deiparine, [email protected] Toril, Davao City, August 20, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Give the Filipino a common enemy that will deprive their stomach and leave them with empty pockets - we will have a critical mass whoever is sitting in Malacanang! Rashid Fabricante, [email protected] Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, August 20, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww My Thought Cheating: That's a given in Philippine election since Douglas McArthur wanted his friend Manuel Roxas as president. Moral Issue: Is a non issue. We elected Joseph. We have Sen. Ping Lacson (suspected of murders...that's w/ s). The church schools are the largest producers of our intellectuals. How many cheated their way to their diplomas and on their way to the top? We have done too much praying that we have forgotten or do what were praying for. Let us have honor system in our schools now, so we may have honest future leaders. EDSA 1 n 2: They were the faceless revolts. Or the faces of the masses that nobody no padrino could subvert. Our padrino, he is always there when needed. I saw his picture once dancing to exonerate Joseph in the senate. Military: Let the junior n middle officers hold their kangaroo court to try their flag officers. They and us know the what punishments for their crimes committed. Let GMA govern and lets look over her shoulders. (Isn�t that what we�ve been doing all this time? ACA) OhSam, [email protected] August 20, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, A few weeks ago, I've read on the Philippine Daily Inquirer a political risk analysis of an international bank saying that GMA has become stronger because of the failure of her political opponents to unseat her yet. The author of the report has also predicted that she'll be even stronger if she isn't unseated by year end. If I had money with this bank, I would've withdrawn it quickly. Its political risk specialist is an amateur and has very little understanding of our political situation. Political risk analysis is crucial in investment decision making. GMA has kept her place because mainstream civil society, the Catholic Church and business have refused to join the political opposition. Moreover, these major forces of EDSA 1 and 2, which you call the middle-class, have yet to come together, much more, decide on what to do with GMA at that time. Apparently, the political risk specialist of the international bank is unfamiliar with the political dynamics in our country. Now that the political opposition has spent itself, mainstream civil society, the Catholic Church and business are slowly but surely coming together to make their move. Here in Davao City, for instance, organizations of all sorts are mobilizing like hell. I hear that the same is true all over the country, particularly, in Metro Manila. The pace of mobilization is truly amazing. People's organizations, student movements, labor unions, business associations and professional groups are all coming alive. I think I'll do better than the political risk specialist of the international bank. At the rate that mobilization is going on, my fearless forecast is that GMA will be out of job by first quarter of next year. From where I stand, I don't see the apathy that you speak of. It's just the complication that the opposition has brought about and, I agree, the question of succession that has stalled the day of reckoning a bit. This is now being ironed out and so mobilization has begun in earnest. A consensus is converging at a transition revolutionary council composed of personalities beyond reproach who would revamp and reform the COMELEC, initiate a constitutional convention and conduct a plebiscite and new election over a period of one year. A federal form of government and unicameral parliament with 50% sectoral representation are also emerging as popular options. These structural reforms are supposed to mitigate the influence of narrow interests on a centralized government and unleash regional initiative. Other reforms would've to be through a newly elected government. This is to avoid the question of mandate and conflict of interests in a revolutionary council. A short transition period is necessary to get a newly elected government going as quickly as possible. Gico Dayanghirang, [email protected] Davao City, August 20, 2005 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, Attached is an example of the coming together of what you refer to as the middle-class. This convergence involving people's organizations, labor unions, student movements and business and professional associations is going on all over the country now. This is very similar to the mobilizations for EDSA 1 & 2. This is also far different from what the oppositions has put together. It is limited to Metro Manila and involves a narrow constituency (politicos, CPP/NPA mass organizations, JIL followers and Erap/FPJ loyalists). A considerable number are professional rallyists. Although the CBCP has assumed only a pastoral role in the present political crisis, Catholic schools, priests and nuns are very much involved in the mobilization process. The bishops are not discouraging it. I wouldn't be surprised if a good number of bishops are in fact encouraging it unofficially. Sunday homilies are now filled with reference to corruption in government as in yesterday. My prediction stays. GMA is going down first quarter of next year at the latest. Remember, eight out of ten Filipinos now want her out. It's all a question of putting people together and it's now being done. Gico Dayanghirang, [email protected] Davao City, August 20, 2005 NOTE: The attachment could not be downloaded and so is not included. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Solution to the Impending Doctor Shortage The way I understand from my previous readings on RP's medical problems with regards to the dwindling number of doctors and the current MD-RN aberrancy wherein multitudes of doctors are becoming nurses in order to work abroad is not going to be reverse in our life time. They are just following the global trend wherein over 200 million people around the world have left their homelands during the past 100 years to find a decent life elsewhere, majority of whom ended up in the USA (UN statistics). (BTW- the US Congress had already approved next year's big FIL-AM centennial celebration of"sustained Filipino immigration since 1906" when the first known Filipinos started working in the Hawaiian sugar fields). . RP�s problem is due to the nation's long term economic malaise and its neglect of the welfare of its healthcare practitioners among many others (bad peace and order, massive graft and corruption and never ending political turmoil). There will be a time when the nation will wake up one day and find itself with only a very negligible number of overworked practicing doctors and it will be too late to find solution to it because no alternative logical choice is being provided by the present government. The Filipino people within the lower economic brackets are already the victims of the current shortages of doctors, nurses and medical care especially in the rural areas. I also have read that the bigger medical centers and many people in Metro-Manila are now feeling the pinch. In the US, the suggested ideal ratio of population to doctor is 5,000 to for a satisfactory sustained medical care. There are about 750,000 licensed US doctors but about 600,000 (the rest are in the academic teaching force and research, the military, etc) are the group of practicing doctors taking care of the 300 million US population. In the Philippines, I believe there are more than 100,000 licensed doctors but about 1/4 are not in active practice. With a population of 85 million people this could mean a 20,000 to 1 people to doctor ratio. With the "out-migrations" of so many MD-RN's (1,000 yearly?), and the retirement, disability, or death of the senior group of doctors, you can expect the gap to widen further. Expect the worse scenario then with the rapidly declining enrollments to all the RP medical schools and the increase in the enrollments of doctors to the schools of nursing (6,000 lately per the DOH). The only viable solution in order to have a decent future medical care in the Philippines is to train graduate nurses, which are now in abundance per the RP Department o Health. They should be encourage to take up an extra two years of postgraduate training, with their school expenses, including board and lodging, shouldered by the GMA government, into becoming "NURSE PRACTITIONERS" the way US graduate nurses are being groom presently to take over basic medical care due to the loss of so many practicing doctors from early retiremen because of the sky-rocketing Malpractice Liability Insurance coverage. (The US Department of Health and Human Services is expecting a shortage of over 20,000 US doctors in five years). The Philippines should start paying good salaries for future "INDEPENDENT NURSE PRACTITIONERS with prescribing privileges", to eventually take the place of the Family Physicians, Pediatricians, Anesthesiologists (as Anesthetists), Internists and the care o un-complicated Obstetrical cases the same way as it is being tried now in several states of the USA for the average peoples' basic healthcare. Conrad Gaerlan Javier, MD, President-The Broadway Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio, and Former Chief-of �Staff, St. Michael Hospital a University Hospital of Cleveland Health System OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |