In my first year at DAILY TRIBUNE, let me first of all express my sincere appreciation and gratitude for the trust and confidence given me by our beloved and respected president, Mr. Willie Fernandez.

Without the great imprimatur from him, it wouldn’t be possible and I’ll be unable to share my opinions, views and stand on various national and, to a certain extent, critical local issues affecting Filipinos and the country as we attempt to lift ourselves from poverty and corruption, insensitivity and mis-governance.

Many subjects, issues and concerns came up “The Bridge” that I would perhaps describe as soft and hard, sweet and bitter journo pieces, dictated or based on the objective conditions existing and/or prevalent in the country at the time they were published.

PhilHealth was the most written about subject here, as we close 2024, involving the incompetence and insensitivity of the PhilHealth board and management led by Mr. Emmanuel Ledesma. I consider the subject as the most important one among them all as it involves the health and financial well-being of 59.35 million members and 44.48 million dependents for a total of 103.83 million beneficiaries, we journos and media practitioners included.

Instead of responding, as mandated by the law that created the government health insurance agency, to the financial challenges confronting medical patients all over the land, the board and Ledesma et al. kept the billions in funds in the vault and a huge portion invested in money-making schemes, deviating from what PhilHealth is supposed to do in accordance with the law.

But was that the purpose PhilHealth was created for? No, it was not, for all intents and purposes. What Ledesma et al. are doing gives me the impression they may be making money or have an under the table arrangement, otherwise what other motive may be behind it. What I’m pretty sure of though is that these PhilHealth officials are insensitive and unresponsive by any measure to the members in need.

In my last two articles, I suggested to President Bongbong Marcos he get rid of the board and Ledesma et al. as soon as possible and replace them in toto with officials who can do the job. Officials who can serve the people and help them confront the financial challenges specially during a hospital confinement. There are many people who are responsive, sensitive and competent to implement what the law mandates PhilHealth to perform for its membership.

The WPS was one subject we also dwelt on enough here, China’s aggression in the West Philippine Sea. Well, to the point that we stressed the need to forge alliances with countries supportive of and in alignment with the Philippine government’s stand under President Marcos Jr. of defending and protecting our sovereign and maritime rights within our exclusive economic zone.

While the USA has its self-interest, in general its government uses allies and controlled countries in different areas of the world to maintain its supremacy. They wouldn’t allow China to break in — that’s the reason more agreements with the Philippines were put in place to ensure an open South China Sea trade lane. Being poor and militarily weak, we have no choice but to go with the devil and the deep blue sea to rein in China’s aggression in our EEZ.

(To be continued)

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