Is there still hope for the Philippine public healthcare system?

Understanding why health is political

- CLINICAL MATTERS DR. EDSEL MAURICE T. SALVANA

Last week, I was invited to give a talk at a public health convention hosted by the Health Sciences Society of Ateneo entitled, "Public Health Convention 2025: To Health and Beyond." The overall theme was "Navigating Spectrums: The Philippine Public Health Landscape." Most of the talks I get invited to do nowadays are for physicians or academics, and so giving a talk to college undergraduates and high school students was a refreshing change of pace.

My talk wasn't until 11 a.m., but I decided to arrive early for the opening plenary. The keynote speaker was former Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Dr. Manuel Dayrit, a good friend and respected colleague. I have personally known Dr. Dayrit since he graciously asked me to deliver a memorial lecture in honor of his father, National Scientist Conrado Dayrit, back in 2017. We have since encountered each other several times in conferences like this one, and we also exchanged notes digitally during the pandemic. Dr. Dayrit was the health secretary when the original SARS outbreak started, and his team was able to successfully contain the cases that arose at that time. Many of those lessons were incorporated into in the institutional memory of the Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) and helped us manage the pandemic.