“THE STATE shall adopt an integrated and comprehensive approach to health development which shall endeavor to make essential goods, health and other social services available to all the people at affordable cost. There shall be priority for the needs of the underprivileged sick, elderly, disabled, women and children. The State shall endeavor to provide free medical care to paupers.” (Phil. Constitutions, Article XIII, Secretary 11)
The mind is perplexed. The feeling is strange. Questions are understandable and in order.
Is the above remarkable and impressive pronouncement really a provision of the Philippine Constitution written for and supposedly observed in this country?
Is the same moving and defining statement actually a stipulation of the Fundamental Law of the Philippines?
Or is it simply a misprint and wherefore merely a misplaced citation lifted from another Constitution of another nation in another continent?
“Integrated and comprehensive approach health development…” What in heavens does this mean in the context of Philippine realities? Where is it found in any part of the country?
Judging from some two long years of incumbency of the one holding the highest executive office in the land, it is sad but true that it is rather hard to concede that the said public official knows the what and the how of a “development” that is not only “integrated” but also “comprehensive.”
The truth is that to this date, the people of the Philippines have yet to know and see an honest-to-goodness National Development Plan in place.
“Make essential goods, health and other social services available to all the people at affordable cost.” Really? To this date and time, after no less than a quarter of a century from the promulgation of the Philippine Constitution, people are still waiting for the availability and affordability of the said goods and health services.
The truth is exactly the opposite: Wallowing in poverty and immersed in want, millions of Filipinos are in fact deprived of such goods and services. It is however admittedly the opposite for those chosen few connected with Malacañang one way or another.
“Priority for the needs of the underprivileged sick” etc. etc. Wow! This is called dreaming while wide awake. This is a resolve in Cloud 6.
This is supposedly constitutional provision for the common good and social welfare of the People of the Philippines that sounds intended for and verified among people in other parts of the world./PN
