Rona’s abdominal pain had progressively intensified in the last two days. The 49-year old mother of two knew she needed urgent medical attention and finally agreed to let her worried husband take her to the nearest government hospital.
At the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, a specialty medical center in Quezon City, Rona was admitted to the emergency ward for initial pain treatment, laboratory examinations and medical observations. But there was no available bed for her while she waited for the pain medication to take effect.
She was seated in a wheelchair placed at a corner of the ward. She waited for 18 hours for a bed and a room to become available. With her were dozens of fellow patients in similar condition. Several, particularly those that could afford it, decided to transfer to private hospitals elsewhere.
Rona’s ordeal is a common situation in the 450 public hospitals across the Philippines.
How bad is public health in the Philippines?
According to international standards, the Philippines faces a shortage of at least 400,000 hospital beds. This results in a ratio of just 0.5 to 1 bed per 1,000 population, well below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) ideal minimum of 3 beds per 1,000 population.
The country has an estimated 105,000 total hospital beds, including private hospitals and clinics, deemed woefully inadequate in a country whose government consistently claims it addresses social service gaps.
While the Philippines exports hundreds of thousands of nurses and other medical professionals abroad, there are only about 57,000 medical personnel hired by the government bureaucracy for the country’s 114 million populace. Lack of medical infrastructure and personnel is felt more in many rural and remote provinces where there are only 0.5 beds per 1,000 residents.
According to the Philippine Health Facility Development Plan, the country needs to more than triple its current hospital capacity to accommodate projected population growth and healthcare demands by 2040.
Meanwhile, medical workers are accusing health officials of the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government of living like royalty and wasting much needed funds, instead of addressing the problem.
Business class tickets for trips abroad
A group of government medical workers on Monday urged Philippine Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla to investigate Department of Health secretary Teodoro Herbosa for authorizing plane ticket upgrades for his subordinate Undersecretary Albert Francis Domingo. Herbosa reportedly approved Domingo’s ticket upgrade to business class to attend the 79th World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland last May 17 to 23.
The Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) accused Marcos’ health chief of “unconscionable, tone-deaf, and illegal misuse of public funds for personal luxury.”
“This is a textbook example of a public official bleeding the government dry for personal comfort…There is no operational necessity for an undersecretary to be pampered in business class,” AHW’s complaint reads.
At a time when plane fares have tripled amid the Middle East War, “Herbosa’s and Domingo’s decision to splurge public funds on luxury travel is not just a violation of administrative rules,” the group said. As a policy, business or first class travel for government officials are prohibited.
Herbosa and Domingo were among the 14-member Philippine contingent to the assembly in one of the country’s most expensive cities: Geneva, Switzerland. The number of government-sponsored delegates also drew criticisms from DOH personnel who said in an earlier statement that Herbosa’s party did not need to be as many.
Generous to all but Filipinos
Secretary Herbosa’s presence at the 79th World Health Assembly (WHA), the highest decision-making body of the WHO, was actually crucial to the event. He was the outgoing president of its 78th Session and was a panelist to discussions on pressing global health issues.
In his keynote speech, the Philippine official emphasized global solidarity, multilateral cooperation, universal health coverage, and the pressing need to address the global health workforce crisis. As a medical doctor, Herbosa is known for advocating for health promotion as an investment in human capital rather than merely a government expense.
But Philippine health workers said Herbosa’s talk is cheap. Aside from presiding over the country’s severe shortage in medical workforce, he is accused of refusing to fight for more health workers in government hospital and giving them better salaries and benefits. The AHW said Herbosa and Marcos’s neglect of the health sector forces hundreds of thousands of Filipino nurses to seek employment abroad, including the Middle East.
Worst, while Filipino patients deal with shortages in health infrastructure and supplies, Herbosa committed to give the WHO US$10 million over four years. The financial commitment has since drawn scrutiny from lawmakers and critics and legislators, such as House Deputy Speaker Janette Garin, Sen. Imee Marcos, and health advocate Dr. Tony Leachon. The critics have questioned the priority of the donation, saying the funds could have been better spent addressing local healthcare needs or hiring additional doctors and nurses.
Flood control over health
Rona spent eight days at the hospital for treatment of what was later diagnosed as a severe bleeding ulcer. She and her husband had to pay what the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) could not cover due to fund limitations.
The Marcos government had earlier taken P89.9 billion from the state insurer, justifying the amount as “excess.” The fund was subsequently funneled into un-programmed appropriations, many of which funded flood control projects that are now in the center of the massive corruption scandal rocking the Marcos government.
The Philippine Supreme Court ruled in 2025 that the decision was illegal. Then finance secretary Ralph Recto, architect of the fund sequestration, asked Congress to fund the restitution to Philhealth, which the Marcos-controlled Congress agreed to. Sixty billion had since been given back to Philhealth from taxpayers’ funds. Meanwhile, Recto had been promoted as executive secretary to Marcos as the flood control controversy rages.
Rona had promised to herself to eat regularly to let her intestinal ulcer recover. She only had to recall her ordeal at the public hospital to realize that health care in the Philippines is painful and expensive. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
