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UPCM '89 graduate Dr. Martin Bautista who ran for senator in the last May 2010
elections shares his insight on the following issues.
I don't agree that love for the Philippines is uncommon among Filipinos overseas. Most of us
would rather be with our families, our classmates and friends; to live in the secure and
comforting neighborhoods we grew up in. Most of us constantly think about the people we
left behind. It is a sad reflection of the desperate conditions prevailing in our country that
3000 Filipinos continue to seek employment in other countries every single day.
Don't idealize living away from our country. The main reason we were able to train in an
excellent teaching hospital was because in 1990, the AIDS epidemic was at a peak and US
medical graduates stayed away from inner city hospitals. We would personally draw blood,
sample bronchial washings, collect colonic effluent from patients with full-blown AIDS, wheel
them for ancillary tests and before they restricted work hours, routinely stay in the hospital
for 120 hours each week. Now, realize we are physicians. Think about those domestics,
laborers, illegal immigrants who have to contend with abusive employers, violence and
profound loneliness, not to mention the permanently impaired family dynamics which result
from these prolonged separations.
I think as UPCM graduates, we each have a responsibility to provide more dignity to millions
of our fellow Filipinos who are frantic to escape such deplorable circumstances.
Many of our alumni are eager to give back and try to assuage this desire with annual
medical missions and charitable donations. What has prevented these disparate and
scattered trickles into becoming a flood is the lingering suspicion that government will never
reliably channel this assistance to the suitable recipients. And this is why we personally
travel to the Philippines and literally hand over our contributions so we can be assured they
are properly received.
The government must find a way to coordinate all these various efforts to produce long-
lasting and
sustainable improvements to our feeble healthcare system.
You will be your own most stern judge. And for as long as you keep your eyes closed to
those who are left behind and you do not commit your heart and soul and life towards trying
to give more dignity to our fellow Filipinos, the gnawing void will only yawn wider.