Harassment of Chestcore health workers in Kalinga

LETTERS

No one can deny the vital role that community health workers have played in the survival of our indigenous peasant communities in Kalinga.

Since the days of the Marcos dictatorship, they have fought side by side with us in our struggle to defend our ancestral lands, and thus our very existence as communities, against greedy corporations and oppressive regimes.

They have come to the remotest of our villages to educate and train us so that we can take care of our own health, given government’s lack of attention to it. Where there are no medical professionals to tend to our ailments, there is CHESTCORE, and the knowledge and skills that it has equipped us with.

CHESTCORE, Community Health Education Services and Training in the Cordillera Region, first sent its staff to Kalinga in 1981, at the height of our communities’ struggle against the Marcos dictatorship’s Chico dams.

Many of our communities then had little awareness of sanitation and preventive health care. CHESTCORE’s doctors, nurses, and educators were among the first community health workers to teach us the importance of such basic things as penning our pigs, digging latrines, and keeping our drinking water clean.

Even in this day and age, most of our communities still have no ready access to professional medical services. Although the state has established district hospitals in Kalinga, none are fully staffed or equipped, and all are poorly supplied with medicine.

To consult a doctor and avail of medical treatment, we have to travel all the way to the provincial capital, Tabuk, or the capital of the neighboring Mountain Province, Bontoc. The cost of the trip alone is formidable to us, who have mostly remained subsistence farmers. It is thus a great help to have among us a significant number of women and men who can competently provide alternative medical assistance – the community-based health workers (CHWs) whom CHESTCORE has trained in five of our province’s eight municipalities, Tinglayan, Lubuagan, Balbalan, Upper Pinukpuk, and Upper Tabuk.

Their services have saved many among us from dying of malaria, typhoid, dengue, measles, pneumonia, tuberculosis, other infective diseases, and infected wounds, and from continuing to suffer rheumatism and other debilitating illnesses common to rice farmers.

In recent years, however, both trainers and trainees have been persecuted by the state’s security forces. In 2006, a death squad operating under the command of the Police Provincial Director at the time attempted to assassinate CHESTCORE’s chief partner in Kalinga, Dr. Constancio Claver.

From early 2007 to late 2010, the 21st and 77th Infantry Battalions of the Philippine Army either monitored the movements or outrightly interrogated CHESTCORE staff and volunteers who visited our communities, and tried to disrupt almost every training seminar they conducted.

At present, the soldiers and the Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Units (CAFGU) operating in our villages keep tabs on our CHWs and harass them by accusing them of providing medical support to the insurgent New People’s Army.

State officials should be ashamed. They have not been able to ensure that government health services reach our mountain communities. And they persecute the people who have filled this gap!

It is our turn to point the accusing finger at them. We accuse them of neglect of duty. We accuse them of failing a most basic responsibility.

If the state cannot help us citizens to survive, then it should at least stop threatening our survival.

Timpúyog dagiti Mannálon ti Kalínga
Provincial Road, Appas, Tabuk, Kalinga
Probinsyal a Tsapter ti Alyánsa dagiti Pesánte iti Taéng Kordilyéra
apittako@gmail.com


Bin Laden and human rights
Bin Laden dies but struggle to end terrorism and Human right violations in the country continues

Osama Bin Laden, the presumed mastermind behind the horrifying 9/11 attack nearly a decade ago was killed last Monday, causing a great stir all over the world. Most especially to the Americans, Bin Laden’s death finally laid justice to the thousands which have been killed in the ruthless 9/11 attack. All over the world, his death is considered as a prized triumph against terrorism.

In the Philippines, the government alerted their armed forces to prepare for a possible retaliation from Al Qaeda’s associate groups in the country.

The Guild welcomes this event as an extinguishing of a burden in the security and human rights of the people. However, specifically in the country, the Guild is standing firm that we should not be overwhelmed by Bin Laden’s death, touting it as a big blow against terrorism. In our country, terrorism has a deceptive face. It is the terrorism sustained by those who are supposed to protect the safety and welfare of its citizens – the state.

Since the term of Gloria Arroyo and up to now in Noynoy Aquino’s regime, the government has never flinched in violating human rights and pulverizing its identified critics. This is the terrorism that all of us must be warier of.

The more publicized cases of the Morong 43 which have been detained illegally for several months and Leonard Co, a botanist who was shot dead last year are only two of the many human rights violations perpetrated by the government. Often, the people arrested or killed are purported to be members of the New People’s Army.

Like last March, Rodel Estrellado, farmer and a member of Bayan-Muna Partylist Sorsogon Chapter was abducted in the town’s market before being killed. In Mindoro, Mangyan communities have recently experienced intimidation from the military. Amidst threats of large-scale miners and dam builders, armed military men were in sight during the Mangyan Day last April 15.

Here in our region, the disappearance of James Balao, member of the Cordillera People’s Alliance who actively fought for the rights and welfare of indigenous peoples, has remained unsolved after two and a half years.

So will terrorism eventually die down after Bin Laden’s death? Here in the country, the answer is certainly no. Terrorism here is not committed by supposedly lawless elements that wield guns and harass civilians. Mostly, terrorism is perpetrated by the state itself, which is eternally protective of their interests and will do its best to stifle progressive elements trying to expose their evils.

College Editors
Guild of the Philippines