Picket rally in front of the Philippine embassy

Photos courtesy of Migrante - Austria

PRESS RELEASE
May 4, 2010
For Reference: Sr.Edita Eslopor – 0929-2692637 / 881-0910
 

Community Health Workers affirm role in Philippine health care

On May 5, 2010, community health workers representing health programs from Metro Manila and Luzon will come together in an assembly to assess their role in the health care system and to affirm their commitment towards serving their communities. Themed “Community Health Workers: Pagtibayin ang Pagkakaisa Tungo sa Ibayong Paglilingkod sa Sambayanan” (Community Health Workers: Affirm Unity Towards Service to the People.) The assembly will be held at the Philippine Nurses Association, Inc., Malate, Manila.

Community health workers are credible members of the community who were selected by the people themselves to assist them in their health needs. They have been internationally recognized at the 1978 Alma-Ata Conference in Russia as a key in promoting a standard of health and well-being for all people.

“Since 1972, the Philippines started developing community health workers to be health educators, health service providers and leaders. Today, the presence of more than 15,000 volunteer community health workers in over 50 community-based health programs nationwide is more than needed, especially in underserved urban and far-flung rural communities,” said Sister Edita Eslopor, a Benedictine nun, community health organizer and the Council for Health and Development’s board chairperson.

“Community Health Workers are trained by physicians and other health professionals from community-based health programs to take history and do physical examination of patients; to prevent and manage common diseases both through Western and traditional healing methods using acupuncture, acupressure and herbal medicine. We also learn when and how to refer patients who require more intensive treatment to the health centers, medical specialists or to hospitals,” said Melquiades Yandog, a community health worker from Payatas, Quezon City and president of KilosBayan para sa Kalusugan (People’s Movement for Health), an alliance of people’s organizations and individuals supportive of CBHP initiatives.
 

In this assembly, community health professionals and advocates will present CHWs an award in recognition of their noble and invaluable role in the community. “Community health workers continue to fight against common diseases; they understand that poverty causes such preventable diseases. They are in communities where it is difficult to travel. Their commitment to serve persists amid red-baiting and danger to their lives,” explained Sister Edita.

“We will continue being community health workers where the need for our service persists and until health services become available and affordable especially to us poor Filipinos” said Yandog.

Community- based health programs staffed by health professionals train community health workers to provide basic health services, to be educators and leaders. In many cases, these community health workers receive no salaries, and rely mainly on contributio4
ns from support groups and communities to sustain health services, trainings, and other operational costs.##

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COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

PRESS RELEASE

10 April 2010

CHR Urges PNP to Accept Morong 43 in

Civilian Detention

The Commission on Human Rights decries the continued detention in a military camp of the group known as the “Morong 43”, and called for the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forced of the Philippines to effectively work together to effect their immediate transfer to civilian facilities.

CHR Chairperson Leila de Lima said that the lack of coordination that reportedly blocked the recent attempt of the AFP to transfer the group from the Army’s Camp Capinpin in Rizal province to the PNP’s main facility, Camp Crame, was “far short of the obligations demanded by law from both the AFP and the PNP in terms of criminal procedure and human rights respect.”

De Lima further said: “These two institutions are demonstrating a serious deficiency of coordination, as eloquently demonstrated by the delivery of 38 of the Morong 43 to Camp Crame, only to have them promptly rejected by the PNP and returned to the military facility of Camp Capinpin. Excuses have been given by both institutions for this failed hand over, and attempts are being made by each party to evade responsibility, but at the end of the day the sad fact is that it is the detainees who will continue to suffer.  It is their rights which will continue to be placed in jeopardy, as they remain locked up in a military camp, instead of a civilian detention facility.”

“We have noticed that the PNP and AFP have each been passing responsibility, not just for the detention, but also for all operations concerning the Morong 43, on to the other,” added Chair de Lima. “With both institutions singing different tunes, we are perplexed as to which one of them is really behind this entire muddle.”

Criminal charges for illegal possession of firearms had already been filed against the detainees who were arrested on February 6 in Morong, Rizal during a raid thereat. “Without yet declaring the existence of human rights violations, including the alleged illegal detention, which are the subjects of the ongoing CHR inquiry, it can still be said that the filing of criminal information firmly placed the suspects within the jurisdiction of the civilian criminal justice system,” said de Lima, “meaning, that the proper place for their detention is in a civilian facility.” 

There is no legal basis for their continued detention in a military camp, nor is there legal basis for the PNP to refuse to take them into custody.  “In fact, the law requires the PNP to take them into custody,” said the CHR Chief.  “It’s not optional for the PNP to say they can take suspects in or not. The PNP has the duty to receive these detainees, and if it must make temporary arrangements while working on more permanent accommodations, then it must do so.”

“Is the PNP saying that it does not have the room or the manpower to ensure the proper detention of a few dozen suspects who have not proven to be violent?” asked the CHR Chairperson.  “If so, then the top government leaders must ensure that the necessary resources should be immediately mobilized so that law enforcers can do their jobs effectively.” 

The CHR had already publicly called for the transfer to civilian facilities during its public inquiry into the case of the so-called Morong 43 on March 18. Another session of the public inquiry is scheduled for this coming Monday, 12 April, at the CHR in Quezon City.  

“May I remind the AFP or PNP custodians, as the case may be, to comply, under pain of contempt, with our standing directive to produce the detainees during our public inquiry on Monday, ” said the CHR Chair.