Here's a repost of the letter sent to some members of President Arroyo's cabinet last February 25, 2008:
Greetings to you on the occasion of the 22nd anniversary of the 1986 People Power (EDSA I)
While the nation celebrates emancipation from former regime’s dictatorship, I would like to dwell into the problems encountered by our other emancipators… our war veterans.
This is a very straightforward message addressin
g your office that I would like to condemn the things that are happening with our health care system most especially with the medical 
practices being implemented at the VETERANS MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER (VMMC). My father is a Filipino war veteran and I grew up with his stories of bravery
on how their colleagues fought for the deliverance of our beloved country from the Japanese. His detailed chronicles molded me and the rest of my siblings with the real meaning of patriotism and loyalty to our country.
Six (6) years ago, my father who was then 73 years old was diagnosed to have COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) / emphysema. Since then, he had been going in and out of the hospital. We even
decided to have him confined at VMMC for several months just to be assured of immediate medical attention to be given to him in case of emergency.
It was during his stay there that we discovered a lot of anomalies happening in the hospital. Cases like medicines getting lost in the hospital’s pharmacy only to find out that they are being sold by insiders to unsuspecting disadvantaged patients; the large inventories of medical equipment that they don’t even use coz they are stupid to learn how to operate them. They aren’t even worthy of being called professionals. There are even several incidents wherein doctors and nurses were very discourteous to the patients as if the veterans were beggars pleading for help from them.
Last year, my father developed a lump in his chest so he underwent a series of biopsies just to be sure what it’s all about. My father was always in great pain whenever they take a mass from that lump. The medical team there performed it not only once but several times and he was in excruciating agony whenever they do this … and you know what… they ended up not knowing what the result was. We just can’t allow this to happen so we asked for the opinion of another doctor and at the time of this writing, that lump was already diagnosed as breast cancer in its malignant stage. Why didn’t the doctors of VMMC see this right away after several biopsies? Why did it slip from their scrutiny if they really know what they’re doing?
Come on… I challenge you to look into these matters. Let us make our war veterans reclaim their dignity for what they have done to our country by providing them with what they need and what they truly deserve. They have already suffered greatly from Japanese brutality when they fought for our independence. Don’t let them die with the bruises inflicted by other ungrateful government / health officials.jpg)
who never really empathized with the heroic deeds our war veterans carried out in order to have a free nation. Let us always remember, they are heroes and not beggars.
