So it was with much admiration when Sen. Ejercito finally broke her silence and publicly spoke against the sudden decision by the Palace to relocate the Malacanang Clinic from its present site in San Rafael St. in San Miguel to the Presidential Security Group (PSG) Hospital located across the Pasig River. In fact, Sen. Ejercito goes out of her way to visit the Clinic this morning to personally look into the situation there and perhaps determine the next course of action she could do to help and take up the cudgels for the poor and indigent patients whose lives have been extended for a little longer by the free dialysis services.
Based on the published statement of the lady Senator over the weekend, I would like to correct my previous information that it was not only 10 but the entire 15 dialysis machines at the Malacanang Clinic were actually donations given during the Estrada administration until the former President was ousted from office at the end of EDSA-2 in January 2001. She clarified that 10 of the dialysis machines were donated by Baxter Philippines and the five others came from the Erap Para sa Mahirap Foundation.
A psychologist by profession, the Senator is fondly called ‘Dra. Loi’ by her close friends. So much of her favorite activities involved charity and medical missions in support of her husband’s pro-poor projects and programs. According to her, during the last 18 months of the Estrada administration, more than 8,648 patients have availed of the free dialysis treatment at the Malacanang Clinic before her husband was ousted from office. If the Palace would proceed with the transfer of the Malacañang Clinic, Dra. Loi threatened to pull out the 15 dialysis machines and distribute these instead to government hospitals to service the kidney-afflicted poor patients needing such treatment.
Echoing her husband’s laments from his rest house detention in Tanay, Rizal, the good Senator decried as ‘heartless’ the Palace’s decision to transfer the Malacanang Clinic to the PSG Hospital. She deplored this transfer was tantamount to closing down the Malacañang Clinic services to the public since it would be more difficult for the patients to gain access to such high security military premises like the PSG Hospital. As it is at present, the public have to go through a maze of security checks of the PSG in all entry and exit points leading to the Palace.
Following the uproar it triggered among the residents, patients, and even Malacanang Clinic medical personnel, senior deputy executive secretary Susana "Ching" Vargas announced last Saturday that the laboratory, the X-ray and the dialysis center at the Malacanang Clinic would remain there. Notwithstanding the concerns raised against this planned transfer, the rest of the medical and dental personnel led by its director, Dr. Rolando Deduyo and medical facilities and other equipment were ordered transferred to the PSG Hospital pronto.
The Palace has taken this action despite the fact that no less than the San Miguel Church parishioners and Precy Asuncion herself, the barangay capitana who asked President Arroyo to transform the Malacanang Clinic into a barangay center has reportedly backed out from this unpopular proposal when her own constituents balked at her hare-brained idea. There was also a signed petition of Mrs. Arroyo’s neighbors and fellow parishioners in the San Miguel area surrounding the Palace asking her benevolent reconsideration of this planned transfer of the Clinic.
The two-paged petition to the President, written in Tagalog and English, dated Aug. 20, was signed by residents led by Bro. Gil Santos, coordinator of the San Miguel Parish Pastoral Council. "Batid po namin ang pangangailangan sa pag-aalaga sa inyong proteksyon at kapakanan ng inyong pamilya, but please not at the expense of us poor residents of San Miguel being isolated and separated from you," they urged. "Subalit ang alisin dito ang Malacanang Clinic ay para na ring inilayo sa amin ang pag-asa at takbuhan naming mahihirap sa panahon ng mga sakit," they bewailed.
"We are praying for the intercession of our patron saint, St. Michael and the Archangels," the San Miguel parishioners pleaded. I just don’t know if this petition letter ever reached the attention of the President and whether she read it or not. If I may suggest, we must as well also pray for the Divine Intervention through the intercession of St. Jude who is the acknowledged patron of even the most impossible petitions.
Dra. Loi herself is a devout Catholic and is a deeply religious person like President Arroyo. She is also active in many Church-sponsored charity activities. Unlike some of her fellow neophyte Senators who went into high profile publicity stunts, she continued with her quiet ways. Now, she won’t be a meek voice but is adding her own to the loud howl of protest against the transfer of the Malacanang Clinic.
Hopefully, Dra.Loi’s actions would not be considered seditious. Notably, it is only the Senator who remains un-implicated in any alleged coup plots against the Arroyo administration. The entire Ejercito family, from the detained President Estrada who is still undergoing plunder trial at the Sandiganbayan to their sons Sen. Jinggoy, Jude, daughter Jackie and her husband Manolo "Beaver" Lopez were charged with various offenses of alleged abetting and financing the Oakwood mutiny staged by the "Magdalo" coup plotters.
Her change of tack has nothing to do with politics. Although she is up for re-election, she has earlier expressed a desire to serve only for one term. She and her eldest son Sen. Jinggoy Estrada are seatmates and partners at the Senate. And perhaps, if the voters elect him into office, San Juan Mayor Jayvee Ejercito, son of President Estrada by Guia Gomez, there might be three of them at the Senate. That is, if this fearless forecast by Pulse Asia survey can be trusted. Pulse Asia survey predicted that Dra. Loi would not win the May 2001 Senatorial race when she merely placed 22nd in their surveys. The final results were incontrovertible, she placed 7th in the final tally of the top 12 Senators. It’s rather premature for Jayvee to even announce his Senatorial bid based on the results of a paid survey.