Without the White Coat
By Florentino P. Alerta II, M.D.

Looks like everybody is leaving the country

My clinic office is just outside the radiology department or X-Ray section of a diagnostic and laboratory clinic that processes workers for overseas employment. With the number and bulk of people coming and going for their laboratory work up it looks like every person here in Metro Iloilo is leaving for a job in a foreign country. With the influx of young Korean students trying to learn the English language in this country especially in Metro Iloilo (they surely add a lot to the economy of the city filling up watering holes and prestigious restaurants nightly) there is also the outflux of workers trying to apply for jobs in Korea. From the ordinary brick masons to welders and just plain laborers, Korea needs a lot of skilled workers. (Take note, tattoos and earrings are not welcome, they are so strict that we have to do rectal examination on the applicant workers especially the male applicants).

Opening the newspaper early this morning the dollar is pegged at 55.95 pesos, the regular fare for a public utility jeepney raised to 7 pesos with only 10 to 15 pesos added to the daily wage of the hard working “Filipino carabao.” The Filipino people had been so hard working that they have to set some sacrifices (shedding sweat and blood) leaving their beloved family behind just to send all the hard-earned cash or dollars back to the Philippines.

Looks like one to one doesn't make both ends meet. Even practicing doctors are now under tight scrutiny from the taxman. His every move is being watched, even to the point that a sentinel is placed at the door of the medical office to document how many patients come and go that clinic door. However, what happens if you don't charge your patient for a consultation, could it be counted against you? Every physician has a moral obligation to pay his/her taxes his/her patriotic role for his/her country irregardless on how the government will spend it and could not be accounted for.

Living the country for greener pastures and better opportunities and one's advancement in life has been the ultimate goal for some. Some hospitals in the north had already shut its doors due to shortage of doctors and nurses, then the big question is, who will take care of the sick population of the Philippines. (Hopefully this present government can answer that.) In order for some of our government physicians to stay and give service to the poor and destitute Filipinos there should be a comfortable financial support for his/her family so that they can all survive. (Just imagine the millions of pesos that are pocketed or just got lost due to “graft and corruption”, if placed in good and proper use, then we can say this is the best place in the world to live in—but with this generation there isn't enough conscience that bothers each Filipinos' mind to live a straight, frugal, simple and Christian life, so it is embedded deep in our blood as Filipinos that this country is going down the drain unless we all start doing something about it.)

We may not taste the fruits of “Social Medicine”—practice in some European countries and Canada, but eventually we'll get lose from the tentacles of the “dole-out system” of the medical practice of this country. (Every time I join a medical mission it always makes me smile to see the same symptoms that warrant all the free medications in the list.)

If the present government will just be serious in handling the employment problem (instead of concentrating on the politics for the few) of this country and give a decent and better wages for workers then we can minimize a lot of emigration out of this country.