By Psyche Roxas-Mendoza / Special to the BusinessMirror
First of three parts
AT the entrance of the Philippine Children’s Medical Center building (formerly the Lungsod ng Kabataan) in Diliman, Quezon City, two old bronze markers—each plastered to a sidewall—carry messages for the Filipino people:
“Lungsod ng Kabataan was inaugurated on April 29, 1980, with Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, as honored guest. Conceived by President Ferdinand E. Marcos as a commitment of the ‘New Society’ to our children, our future, as he proclaimed 1979 and hence after as a ‘decade of the child’ made real by the First Lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos on April 29, 1979. This Lungsod ng Kabataan is an offering of the Fillipino people to its future—our children.”
“We dedicate this Lungsod ng Kabataan to the Filipino child, our future. Let this be a manifestation and a symbol of the Filipino people’s love for country and future, our children.”
“Here we offer a love that gives, a love that serves, a love for life, a love for God in glory for country and people.”
“Our love and care begin now. For the child is today and tomorrow.”
—Sgd. Imelda Romualdez-Marcos
The markers, now rusty and hard-to-read in some parts, have long been taken for granted by its resident doctors. Hard-up parents desperate to seek treatment for their sick children, likewise, do not notice them.
Almost nine months after the 1986 Edsa February Revolution, the Lungsod ng Kabataan was renamed the Philippine Children’s Medical Center (PCMC) on the strength of Malacañang Memorandum 4, issued by President Corazon Aquino.
Poor children
THE Lungsod ng Kabataan was once an attached agency of the Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS), the super-ministry identified with former First Lady Imelda Marcos. As PCMC, the children’s hospital was, henceforth, administratively attached to the Department of Health.
But the hospital’s original charter, mandate and functions were retained.
Created by Presidential Decree (PD) 1631 on August 10, 1979, and later amended by Executive Order (EO) 893 on April 23, 1983, the Lungsod ng Kabataan/PCMC had a number of functions, ranging from treatment to research on child maladies. Its mandate included the extension of “pediatric services to the general public, to help prevent, relieve or alleviate the afflictions and maladies of children and youth, especially the poor and less fortunate in life, without regard to race, creed, color or political belief.”
Thirty years later, the preference-for-poor-children mandateof the PCMC served as an effective rallying call in successfully warding off attempts of the Aquino administration to privatize the children’s hospital.
Dr. Julius A. Lecciones, executive director of PCMC and current country coordinator of My Child Matters Philippines, said: “We opposed privatization. Private investors will, of course, seek profit. What will happen to the poor? Right now, our mandate is very, very clear. This hospital is especially created to give state-of-the-art care to the most difficult clinical cases in children, with priority to poor families. That is why 60 percent of our beds are reserved for the poor or our service patients. We do not like privatization, because we believe that a private firm that comes in will not do it for altruistic reasons. First, they will reduce the number
of service patients. That is for sure.”
Beyond politics
LECCIONES made it clear that politics should not get in the way of treating poor children.
“I subscribe to this saying: ‘Let the children be the first to benefit from humankind’s successes and
the last to suffer from humankind’s failures,’” Lecciones said. “I want support beyond politics. Let the children be the unifying spirit. Palagi kong sinasabi ’yan [I always say that].”
He added that in their campaign against privatization, the PCMC sought help across political parties. These included, among others, Sen. Bam Aquino, Sen. TG Guingona, and other elected and appointed officials aligned with the Aquino administration; Bayan Muna and Gabriela from militant party-list groups; and even from former First Lady Imelda Marcos.
“We picked up Imelda’s ideas for the beautification of the Lungsod ng Kabataan—pocket gardens, trees, an environment for the total healing of the child—and included these in our visualization of the hospital,” Lecciones said.
He added: “She told me, ‘Dr. Lecciones, huwag mo tanggalin ’yung markers [Do not remove the markers]. They are part of our history, whether negative or positive.”
Shelter
ON December 17, 1986, the revolutionary government of the late President Corazon C. Aquino formally abolished the MHS through EO 90.
But it retained much of the Marcos administration’s shelter program through the MHS-attached agencies that are now under the administration of the Cory government-created Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC).
These attached agencies included the National Housing Authority, National Home Mortgage Finance Corp., Human Settlements Regulatory Commission (renamed Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board), Home Financing Corp. (renamed Home Insurance and Guaranty Corp.) and the Pag-Ibig Fund (Home Development and Mutual Fund).
From 1978 to February 1986, the MHS—under the direct guidance of First Lady Imelda Marcos—was “charged with the task of formulating a National Shelter Program, which defines the housing objectives and targets of the national government.”
In like manner, the HUDCC was under the direct supervision of the Office of the President by virtue of EO 90. And like its predecessor, the MHS, the HUDCC serves as the highest policy-making body for housing.
As stated in its mandate, it coordinates the activities of the key housing agencies to ensure the accomplishment of the Government Shelter Program. The HUDCC was further strengthened through EO 357 on May 25, 1989, and EO 20 on May 28, 2001.
Both EOs helped confer to the HUDCC the power to exercise overall administrative supervision over key housing agencies that were originally attached agencies of the MHS under PD 1396.
To be continued
Next: Part II Imelda’s Lasting Impression
Image credits: facebook.com/The-Philippine-Childrens-Medical-Center