On ordinary days, ambulances are always wailing on the road from nearby lowland provinces to the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center (BGHMC). More so now that the hospital is the testing center for COVID-19 patients for the Cordillera, Regions 1, 2 and 3. And it is the most equipped in said regions to deal with COVID-19 patients.
So much so that the Baguio City mayor appealed to the hospitals of nearby provinces to streamline their operations so they could deal with COVID-19 patients and not just refer everybody to BGHMC. Otherwise, BGHMC would be swamped or drowned by patients. Doctors and staff at BGHMC even volunteered to help the lowland hospitals in such streamlining.
Bottom line is lowland hospitals are much lower in capability, even if they are of the same level with the BGHMC.
Why?
The set-up of plazas of lowland towns can be very revealing in this respect. You have the church there with an imposing structure and also the town hall or the munisipyo or the capitol. The church continues to bear the cross, instrumental in the subjugation of the Philippines. While the sword now is wielded not by the guradia civil or the encomiendero but by the local government unit which now uses the gun or money corrupted from public funds.
Subservience of people now in this country is not anymore just the business of the Catholic Church. So many other religious groups have sprouted relying on the gullibility of our people for their growth in terms of membership or economic assets.
The local governments in the lowlands are still true to the nature of their predecessor during the Spanish times. They are reminiscent of the haciendas where the controlling persons have the masses at their beck and call. Continuity of this was and still is assured by the sword or the barrel of the gun and the control over local economic resources.
The money for such political purpose is being siphoned from the government’s coffers. So ghost projects are so common down in the lowlands. The masses could not complain as, chances are, they are poorly educated due to lack of resources and have to depend on local politicians for their subsistence in the form of jobs or outright dole outs.
Local politicians down there control all government projects and contracts, even for the improvement of the health system such as the building of infrastructure or the acquisition of modern equipment. Many of these are ghost projects. Equipment would be listed as already acquired but never delivered to the hospitals. Infrastructure would be indicated in the books as already built, but is nowhere to be seen on the ground. The money was just pocketed by politicians. Complain? You will end up dead in the ditch as had been the case with honest government auditors, even in the very recent past.
Promotion of doctors and staff in these lowland hospitals are dependent on the local powers-that-be, not based on the merits but as to how far a person would kowtow to a politician’s wishes. So morale is low. Why exert effort to be able to deliver better health services? Just refer patients to BGHMC.
As to the Cordillera, our politicians are learning very fast from their lowland brethren. Things are not yet as bad, but, be assured, we are getting there. **