An extraordinary ministry
Personal passions drive Pia Cayetano’s zeal and determination in chairing the Senate Committee on Health and Demography—-and the results are quite tangible. By Cathy S. Babao

Her fervor to have the immunization law put into practice, for instance, bears very strong emotional links to her late father, former senator Rene Cayetano, who passed away from liver cancer in 2003. To bring her point home, she is battling for stricter guidelines in the administration of Hepatitis B vaccine for all newborns. "Liver cancer, which my father had, is one of the cancers that can be prevented. One of the basic causes of this type of cancer is hepatitis. Imagine all the lives we could save if the babies were immunized within the prescribed period of time!".

Aware that the cost of hepatitis immunization can be steep for the masses, Cayetano is looking at lowering immunization costs by importing machines and materials that would enable the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Alabang to produce the vaccine. The theory goes that if we are able to manufacture here, the cost of immunization would go down even further, making it more accessible to a wider market.

Thankfully, help is at hand. Multinational companies like GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) still continue to provide for the AB market. Hepatitis vaccines that the Department of Health (DOH) is offering are also much cheaper and are made available at health centers.

A heart for health
Having lost two very important people all in a span of four years, Cayetano feels all too well the terrain of having a sick loved one, including the challenges that come with caring for that individual and making decisions on his behalf. In retrospect, what has been misconstrued as the Malpractice Bill is actually what Cayetano refers to as the Patients' Rights and Obligations Bill. (See related sidebar).

"I don't understand why it should be controversial when any good doctor who has read it will see that he is already following what is mandated in the bill. So what is there to fear?" For now, she says, there is a consultative panel, headed by Dr. Jimmy Galvez Tan, who is helping her and the committee thresh out the finer points of this bill.

There are more pressing matters to consider, after all. "Among the more important issues that are pending--as far as I'm concerned--is the mass exodus of nurses and doctors. Enrollment in medical schools have dwindled to alarming levels such that some hospitals aren't able to fill their residency vacancies," the youthful senator laments.

Consequently, she feels it of utmost importance to regulate the nursing schools that have mushroomed around the country. "Whereas before the passing rate was 70 percent, ?now, I have reports saying that in some schools it is at a ridiculous 30 percent!"

Clearly appalled at such low standards, Cayetano, herself a mother to two adorable kids, feels for the parents who shell out tuition to send their children to nursing school in hopes of a better life-often attained by overseas employment. "With a passing rate of 30 percent, that dream may not even be attainable in the long run."

A champion for women
Maternal and reproductive-health concerns affect her deeply as well, for obvious reasons. Stressing that she is out to conduct her hearings 'as neutrally as possible,' she explains, "I've been told that I should take a stand. But I tell them, 'look, I am chair of this committee, I need to look at all points raised. And there are many ways of looking at it.'"

She is taken aback at the wrong information some people still have about reproductive health and practices as rudimentary as pregnancy. "This is something that I can maybe work out with [in] the education department. Women have the right to good health programs-maternal and reproductive."

She has her hands (and head) full of the country's health woes, but the task does not daunt her. "Clearly, I am here for a reason. Although I'm not a doctor, I have [the] heart for improving healthcare services because of my experience with my dad and my son."

What won't kill you makes you stronger, so they say. And, if Cayetano's personal losses fueling her passion to improve the state of the nation's health care is anything to go by, they make you an exemplary role model, too.