Planned sale of Mental Hospital land opposed
“In the end, this planned sale of Welfareville may just diminish the mental health services into mere psychiatric desks in various hospitals, or the mental hospital may end up privatized.” – Rey Quinto, employee of National Center for Mental HealthBy MARYA SALAMAT
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – Some patients of National Center for Mental Health in Mandaluyong City have to stay there for weeks or months for treatment. Others were forced to stay for years, particularly those who are no longer being visited by their relatives. The latter number up to a hundred patients at present.
They are among the Filipinos who reportedly lose their grip on reality because of poverty-related problems and difficulties in life and love. Some became patients of the public mental hospital in Mandaluyong because they entered a depression which they failed to escape from, or their minds got the worst of the effects of drug addiction. These are the frequent reasons cited in cases brought in by thousands of patients in mental hospital, said Armando Palaganas, vice-president of the National Center for Mental Health Employees Association- Alliance of Health Workers (NACEMHEA-AHW).
But these Filipinos and others who may soon join them including those left wandering the streets may soon lose their chances to get treatment with the planned sale of the 118-hectare Welfareville property. The mental hospital, its employees and patients are threatened with dislocation.
The 43-hectare public mental health institution that services these patients lies inside Welfareville property. The mental hospital is composed of separate low building, many called as “pavilions” housing different types of patients. The buildings are scattered within a relatively lush greenery that officers of the AHW said are favoured by health workers and patients’ relatives for various therapeutic exercises of their mental patients.
Picket protest of mental health center’s workers and allies (Photo by Jhun Dantes / bulatlat.com)
Massive dislocation for huge sale
The workers of National Center for Mental Health, its patients’ relatives and the community residents in Welfareville are opposing the public bidding of the land scheduled on July 2012. They are also opposed to the impending transfer (or rather, one of the rumoured planned transfers) of the mental hospital to what they described as a smaller, still underdeveloped lot in Antipolo.
If this planned transfer of the mental hospital to Antipolo is true, Palaganas told Bulatlat.com that many patients will likely no longer be cared for nor admitted, because the area is less than a fourth of their current location. The union has also previously expressed doubts as to its accessibility.
At the sidelines of their protest action against the bidding of Welfareville late last week, Palaganas expressed gratitude for the support of lawmakers like Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño.
Casiño filed last September a bill and a resolution that aim to stop the sale of Welfareville property. His House Bill No. 5257 seeks to repeal Republic Act 5260, the law signed in 1968 by then President Ferdinand Marcos authorizing the public bidding of the Welfareville property to generate funds supposedly for “children’s welfare services.”
House Resolution No. 1700, also of Casiño, directs the Committee on Health to conduct an inquiry, in aid of legislation, on the “misdirected planned sale of the Welfareville Property.”
Palaganas asked other government officials, especially President Benigno Aquino III and Social Welfare Sec. Dinky Soliman, to “take the cue and prioritize the welfare of patients, health workers and residents over and above the interests of local and foreign business.”.... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://bulatlat.com/main/2011/11/04/planned-sale-of-mental-hospital-land-opposed/
1 comment
1968 pa ang RA ni Marcos authorizing the sale of Welfareville Property pero hindi naman pinatupad. Bakit isasakatuparan pa ngayon?
"If this planned transfer of the mental hospital to Antipolo is true, Palaganas told Bulatlat.com that many patients will likely no longer be cared for nor admitted, because the area is less than a fourth of their current location. The union has also previously expressed doubts as to its accessibility."
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