As health professionals, we cannot look away from the corruption

It has been months since explosive revelations of large-scale corruption dominated our headlines, and weeks since thousands took to the streets in protest, demanding accountability.

- GIDEON LASCO and JANINE PATRICIA ROBREDO

Yet, tellingly, we are still waiting for anyone to be truly held accountable. This has happened too many times: each scandal ignites a surge of outrage, only for momentum to fade and our collective will worn down by silence and inaction. We find ourselves losing energy to care and eventually growing numb. The cycle is frightening.

None of this is new, and those who remember Napoles and PDAF can attest that while the shapes and players may change, the story rarely does. But just because we're familiar with the scandal does not make the pain less acute. Repeated failures of accountability have only paved the way for more egregious forms of plunder. If the estimate of P1 trillion siphoned from flood control projects alone is true, we could have fed millions of hungry Filipino children or delivered life-saving medicines and services to countless communities.

As medical doctors and public health practitioners, we are doubly outraged, given how limited the health care budget already is. The money wasted in corruption is the very lifeblood needed to keep patients alive, to staff our hospitals and clinics, to ensure every Filipino receives the care they deserve. As powerfully proclaimed at the Trillion-Peso March, "Libo-libong pasyente [ko] sa barrio na sana ang nagamot ng mga luxury cars niyo!" But indignation is only the beginning.