‘Pagod na pagod na po kami’: Samar-based doctor pleads for gov’t aid as more health workers catch COVID-19

Dr. Katerina Abiertas, a municipal health worker from Samar, is positive for COVID-19— so is the health worker monitoring her condition and so are 14 other health workers under her care.

“Nakakadurog po ng puso… Okay lang po ba sa inyo ito? (It is heartbreaking. Is this okay with you?),” she asked the government in a forum hosted by the Move as One Coalition on Friday. “Parang awa niyo naman po (Have some mercy).”

Abiertas said that aside from the 15 health workers in her municipality who have tested positive for COVID-19, several other medical professionals in nearby areas have also contracted the respiratory illness.

She said they all worked together to put up an isolation facility for COVID-19-positive health workers but space has already started to run out.

“Gusto po namin tulungan ang Pilipinas, ang aming kapwa Pilipino, pero sana naman po ‘wag po kapalit ang buhay namin. Mahirap pong maka-produce ng isang health worker sa panahon ngayon. So kaming nandito na, alagaan niyo naman,” Abiertas said.

(We want to help the Philippines, our fellow Filipinos, but not at the expense of our lives. It’s hard to produce a single health worker in these times, so take care of the ones who are here now.)

She said health workers aren’t asking for much, just their long sought-after hazard pay and 14 days of uninterrupted rest when they test positive for COVID-19. 

Instead, health workers are forced to spread themselves thin to administer COVID-19 vaccines and attend to confirmed cases.

Once, Abiertas said, she had to borrow a rapid antigen test kit from a neighboring municipality to test herself for COVID-19 as she had developed symptoms right before she was set to vaccinate residents who walked hours to reach the vaccination site.

“Pagod na pagod na po kami pero patuloy po kaming lumalaban kasi alam naman namin na wala naman pong iba na gagawa no’n para sa mga kababayan namin,” she said through tears.

(We are so exhausted but we continue to fight because we know that no one else is going to care for our patients.)

‘Stop passing the buck’

In a statement, the Move as One Coalition told President Rodrigo Duterte, economic managers, and lawmakers to “stop passing the buck” on Bayanihan 3 and move urgently to address funding concerns. 

The group called on Duterte and the leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives to call a special session to reallocate line items from the 2021 National Budget to fund Bayanihan 3.

They also urged economic managers to convene the Development Budget Coordinating Committee and set a higher spending and borrowing program.

“Why do our leaders fiddle while our people burn?” the group asked. “We deserve better than this buck-passing and bureaucratic foot-dragging. We call on our leaders to practice what they preach: genuine Bayanihan.”

The Palace earlier said Duterte would tackle Bayanihan 2 and 3 with Congress leaders on Thursday. 

Bayanihan 3, which seeks to provide P401 billion worth of interventions for pandemic-stricken Filipinos, was approved by the House on third reading in early June. —LDF, GMA News