Continuing struggle at Tala Leprosarium
The Dr. Jose Rodriguez Memorial Medical Hospital and Sanitarium (more commonly known as the Tala Leprosarium) comprises 130 hectares within the Tala Estate. The entire 7,000-hectare Tala Estate comprises three barangays in Caloocan City.
Tala Leprosarium is one of eight hospitals nationwide for patients afflicted with leprosy. In the hospital�s immediate environs live some 3,000 lepers and their families. There are 30 doctors and 74 nurses serving them. There are also 230 other employees and 220 patient assistants (patients and their relatives that serve the hospital as support staff).
There are plans to transform the leprosarium itself, which has a 2,000-bed capacity, to a general hospital with a 200-bed capacity. The government is deadset on reneging on its duty to give needed services to the patients and their families. Due to the project, the hospital�s doctors, nurses, employees and patient assistants are set to lose their jobs. Construction for the general hospital has begun and is ongoing.
| Leprosy or Hansen�s Disease is a contagious ailment caused by the microbe Mycobacterium leprae. It attacks the skin, nerves, lungs, eyes, fingers and other parts of the body. In 1997, there were 1.2 million lepers on record worldwide. The biggest number is concentrated in Southeast Asia. There are two kinds of lepers � those with severe infections (multibacillary patients) and mild infections (paucibacillary patients). It was only in the latter part of the 1940s when the cure for this disease was discovered. It can now be cured in 12 months. Patients who have been taking medication for more than a week are no longer infectious. |
Massive dislocation threatens the community with the planned conversion of 70 hectares of the latter into a housing project of the National Housing Authority. The land has been declared a reservation for distribution to the patients and their families by virtue of Proclamation No. 843 of 1971. But the latter has been superseded by a new law that favors the privatization and conversion of the land to commercial use. The people of Tala are opposed to this because community residents, most of whom have lived there for 20 to 30 years, will be evicted. On May 15, the houses of 82 families were demolished in one sitio.
The local government in Caloocan has also pinpointed Tala as a growth area. It is supposedly the most favorable area in Metro Manila to build business. It is allegedly necessary to develop the area to encourage foreign businesses. There are also plans to transfer the Caloocan city hall here.
In the first week of July, the patients, their families, affected residents of the community and their supporters picketed in front of the leprosarium for five days. They resisted the privatization and commercialization of the hospital, the conversion of the land and other related issues. Since 1999, the lepers, their families and other affected entities have been conducting yearly camp-outs to advance their welfare. In February 2000, they succeeded in having their daily food budget raised from P35 to P50.
�Leprosy has been eradicated in the Philippines!�
The International Monetary Fund and World Bank had dictated that the government should reduce funding for social services to be able to avail of continued credit. In response, the Estrada government issued Executive Order 336 that maliciously declared that leprosy has been eradicated in the Philippines. The leprosy incidence of 63 per million Filipinos was supposedly no longer alarming. The Estrada government said that from 38,570 registered patients in 1986, the number had gone down to 8,746 in 1997, with 88,117 patients cured in 13 years since 1986.
To conform to EO 336, the number of leper cases was systematically reduced. Some patients were bribed P10,000 in exchange for a declaration that they were no longer patients. Some were threatened that they would be discharged from the hospital without being paid if they refused to declare that they were cured. Others are being sent home and declared as having been discharged from the hospital. Still others are sent to the leprosarium in Bicol. Of almost 3,000 Tala patients, only 900 are actually registered as patients.
Despite EO 336, the government continues to receive international aid for the treatment of leprosy patients. In 2000, for instance, the government received $150,000 from the American Leprosy Missions, and $410,200 in 2001. The list of registered patients is merely being used to extract aid from other countries. The Macapagal-Arroyo regime is doing nothing to resolve the problem at Tala and has in fact endorsed the project. The regime is merely perpetuating the oppression of lepers and the people of Tala.
Issues within the leprosarium
While the main problem of Tala patients remains the closure of the leprosarium, they likewise face the problem of being neglected and oppressed within the leprosarium. They do not have enough medicines, food and other basic necessities. One particular issue involves the patients and their families� continued resistance to receiving rations of rotten meat and fish. Patient assistants who have served the hospital for 20 to 30 years are also exploited, receiving a mere P15 as their daily wage.
The struggle continues
The patients and their families do not ask for pity. They have come to realize the truth that only through their collective action can they resist their oppression. They must maximize all forms of collective action, expand and consolidate their ranks while raising their level of resistance and militancy along with other sectors of society. Thus, Tala will be known not as a community of people afflicted with a contagious disease, but a community with a brilliant history of a people in struggle.
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