I NOTICED that there are many independent political parties and organizations that are outside the mainstream of the political arena.
Their voices are hardly heard in the mainstream news media, probably because they do not possess the critical mass that could attract the attention of the news reporters and the editors.
But what if they could consolidate all their voices into one bigger voice? Would that not make a difference?
As much as possible, I have been avoiding political topics in my essays. Recently however, I have noticed that the bigger mainstream parties have been focusing more on their political agendas, and they have not been paying too much attention to their scientific and economic agendas. And even if they are doing that to some extent, it appears to be shallow and lacking.
When I say economic agendas, I also mean the environmental, social and governance (ESG) components.
ESG is a buzz word in the regional and global development circles.
Most advanced countries have included ESG in their programs of government, as these are often advocated and articulated by their ruling parties.
Of course, ESG also includes the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as the Human Development Index (HDI).
In an effort to start the ball rolling, I have created a Messenger Chat group in Facebook, and I have named it the Philippine Independent Parties and Organizations League forum, or PIPOL for short. Any member of any political party or party list organization could join, including the regional parties.
Just to be clear, PIPOL is only a chat group, meaning that it is not an alliance nor is it a coalition. No single party or organization has to give up their identities, and there are no membership forms to fill up or fees to pay.
All those who are interested could just join via Facebook, and anyone can just leave the chat anytime.
PUBLIC DIAGNOSTIC LABORATORIES
Privately owned diagnostic clinics are necessary services and it is good to have them around.
I am a regular customer in one of those facilities, and I am quite happy about the quality of their services.
What makes me sad, however, is that it seems that only the middle class could afford to pay for their services, thus leaving out a huge segment of the population that have no access to medical laboratory services at all.
As it is supposed to be, private customers could avail themselves of the services of private medical laboratories, no matter how expensive these are, as long as they could afford to pay.
On the other hand, low income people do not have the luxury of that choice, because as far as I know, there are no public medical laboratory services that they could avail of for free, if you know what I mean.
For sure, there are many public health centers that are offering their services for free, but how well could the doctors in these centers diagnose their patients if they do not have the laboratory results that are necessary for their diagnosis?
That is really the root of the problem, and the only solution to that is to build these free public medical laboratory centers.
In theory, the graduates TESDA’s short term laboratory technician courses may already be qualified to work in these laboratories, instead of the graduates of the four year medical technology courses.
If for example there is a need to staff laboratories in all 42,000 barangays, it will have to be a mix of lab techs and med techs. It is possible that some of the Barangay Health Centers might have their own built-in diagnostic laboratories, but that would seem to be the exception, rather than the rule.
Vantaztic, Inc., a leading supplier of modified container vans has an existing design that is suitable for these medical labs./PN
