Why would GMA transfer Malacañang Clinic to the PSG Hospital?

Effective tomorrow, the Malacañang Clinic in San Rafael St., just across the Palace, will be closed down. This I learned yesterday from my son, who studies in the nearby San Beda College, when I advised him to go to the Malacañang Clinic after he told me he was running a fever. Having covered the Palace for close to two decades, I have availed of the free medical, dental and other health services being provided to the general public by the Malacañang Clinic. So I sent my son there because I know and trust the very competent medical staff of the Malacanang Clinic led by their director, Dr. Rolando Deduyo.

Last Monday, deputy executive secretary for finance and administration Susana "Ching" Vargas informed all employees of the Clinic that they would be moved out from San Rafael St. and that the Clinic would be transferred within this week to the Presidential Security Group (PSG) Hospital. The PSG Hospital is located inside the PSG Headquarters across the Pasig River directly in front of the Palace. What prompted the transfer of the Clinic is vague until now.

Does this have anything to do with President Arroyo’s getting sick twice in a row that she now wants the Malacanang Clinic transferred to the PSG Hospital where only the military, Palace officials and employees (who have security clearances) can enter?

What makes this transfer highly suspicious is the fact that it would be leaving the old building there sitting on a prime real estate property acquired in 1982 by the government during the time of the late dictator President Ferdinand Marcos. It was former First Lady, Imelda Marcos who initiated the acquisition of this property from the late Gen. Basilio Valdez who himself was a doctor. No one has any idea of what the Arroyo administration plans to do with the property once the Clinic is transferred to the PSG headquarters. Some heard that these facilities would be turned into a barangay hall. What a richly-rewarded barangay it would be!

I called up yesterday Ching Vargas to verify from her about this transfer and she confirmed. Indeed the Clinic would be transferred as per "instructions" she supposedly got from President Arroyo. In fact, she said, she is just awaiting further instructions from Presidential Management Staff (PMS) Secretary Arthur Yap on how to go about the transfer of the Clinic to the PSG Hospital. I tried to call up Yap but the voice of a lady in his cellular phone kept saying he "could not be reached."

Vargas could not, however, say yet what is the plan for the property once the Clinic is moved out of there. "We have not really discussed the details yet," Vargas told me. All that he told me is that the President impressed upon her that the 1,200 PSG troopers and their dependents would also be served by the transfer of the Malacanang Clinic to the PSG Hospital.

Attorney Vargas, however, clarified under the law, a clinic within a government agency like the Malacañang Clinic at the Office of the President (OP), is supposed to service only the organic employees and their dependents. If that is the case, then Malacanang Clinic has been operating illegally and violating this law in serving the medical, dental and other health needs of the general public, particularly the indigent patients through these years.

Old timers though, who have been in the service of the Clinic cited no less than the Charter that created it during the term of the First Philippine Commonwealth President, the late Manuel L. Quezon. The Malacañang Clinic is mandated to provide for the medical, dental and other health needs not only of the OP employees and their dependents but also of the general public, especially the poor and others who seek medical assistance from the OP.

Just to give you an idea of how the transfer of Malacanang Clinic would impact the general public is simple data that I culled from official records. In terms of patients served by the Clinic for last year alone, there were a total of 160,205 individuals treated or served. But individual patients who were treated at the Clinic got also other medical services available free of charge from cataract surgery to immunization or even the very expensive dialysis that they can get. As per record, the Clinic provided 600,484 services from January to December last year.This is not to mention the fact that the 20 or so, doctors of the Clinic – six dentists, nursing and other medical staff attend daily to these number of patients who come from as far as Mindanao and go there just to avail of the Clinic’s services.

The most sought-after medical service given by the Clinic is the 15 dialysis machines that extend the lives of poor patients afflicted by liver and other serious ailments requiring dialysis. Ten of these dialysis machines were donations from Japan that were turned over to the Clinic by the former First Lady and now Senator, Dr. Loi Ejercito. When former President Joseph Estrada learned about this, he ordered that indigent patients would not have to pay a single cent for the dialysis medicines because these are very costly medicines per dialysis session which poor folks could not possibly cough up.

Fortunately, this project was sustained by First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. The Malacañang Clinic got a solid patron with no less than the husband of the President to undertake many other medical, dental, cataract, and other medical outreach missions and projects all over the country to bring these basic services to the people, especially to the poor in the countryside. The Clinic lost its patron when the First Gentleman got into a lot of controversies that forced him to stay away from the limelight, including staying away from his favorite charity projects for the Clinic.

And the transfer of the Clinic is the last nail to the coffin of this institution of service to the poor. With just verbal instructions, since there is no official written order, the medical and non-medical staff of the Clinic have started packing up their things and equipment. But what is more saddening is when I learned that Dr. Deduyo filed yesterday his application for early retirement. I tried to get in touch with him yesterday to no avail. I was not surprised though, by the decision of Deduyo to just retire perhaps obviously out of frustration. For someone who has spent the best years of his profession in the name of public service, Deduyo is just one of the latest government doctors, forced by circumstances, to opt for private practice instead, where there is less stress, and of course, where they can earn more. But knowing the good doctor, I know he would stay on to serve the public, especially the greatest number if only he can serve them and where they can easily come to him.

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