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Health
in the 1970s:
The
Martial Law Years
Following
on the golden opportunities of the 1950s and 1960s,
the country was stunned when on September 21, 1972,
President Ferdinand Marcos announced that under
Proclamation Order No. 1081, Martial Law was in effect
throughout the entire country. One of the first orders
affecting health was a Cleanliness Campaign under
General Order No. 13.
Healthcare
and Activism
One
offshoot of the Martial Law years was the confusion
between medical work and activism. The year 1974
marked the beginning of the Rural Practice Program for
doctors. Concurrently, the Community-Based Health
Projects (CBHP) were quite popular and steadily
adopted in different parts of the country. Young
doctors and nurses worked close to the people in rural
communities, treating and educating their patients.
However
healthcare inevitably became mixed with politics. And
since some CBHP’s were located in known New
People’s Army (NPA) territories, hence, doctors like
Dr. Remberto (Bobby) de la Paz came under suspicion
and, in 1982, was shot down in his Catbalogan clinic.
Later on, these CBHP’s will give rise to the Primary
Health Care movement.
Continuing
Health Activities
The
list of top killer diseases showed tuberculosis and
pneumonia on top with heart disease a close third.
The
Department of Health continued on the activities of
its predecessor, mainly on family planning, nutrition
and child health. The Marcos administration
prioritized population control throughout the
seventies as can be gleaned from the Annual Reports.
In 1971, the Population Act of the Philippines (R.A.
6365) was passed and the first 5-year population
program started.
Other
programs focused on nutrition. The National Nutrition
Council was created in 1974. Under the term of Health
Secretary Dr. Clemente S. Gatmaitan, the Operasyon
Timbang program was also adopted nationwide in 1974,
and later on followed up with a complementary Targeted
Food Assistance Program (TFAP).
In
1975, a Malnutrition Prevention Project through
nutrition education was started by the Bureau of
Agricultural Extension. Three years later, a Barangay
Nutrition Scholar was fielded to every barangay. And
in 1976, the historic Expanded Program on Immunization
(EPI) began. Clearly, the emphasis on nutrition and
child health was evident with the years 1977-1986
being labeled as the "Decade of the Filipino
Child."
The
Specialty Hospitals
Notwithstanding
the political upheavals of those tumultuous years,
there were, of course, concrete health improvements
during the Martial Law years. From 1975 to the
mid-eighties, four specialty hospitals were built in
succession. The first three institutions were
spearheaded by First Lady Imelda Marcos. The
Philippine Heart Center was established on February
14, 1975 with Dr. Avelino Aventura as director.
Second, the Philippine Children’s Medical Center was
built in 1979. Then in 1983, the National Kidney
Institute and Transplant Institute was set up. This
was soon followed by the Lung Center of the
Philippines, which was constructed under the guidance
of Health Minister Dr. Enrique Garcia. Truly, the
number of patients that have been treated by these
institutions has truly been phenomenal.
The
Ministry of Health
With
a shift to a parliamentary form of government, the
Department of Health was transformed into the Ministry
of Health on June 2, 1978 with Dr. Clemente S.
Gatmaitan as the first health minister.
The
late seventies saw the growing trend for a new
movement called Primary Health Care, reaching its peak
effects in the 1980s.
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