BULUAN, Maguindanao: Appalled at the lack of medical treatment, Lakas-Kampi CMD standard-bearer Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. pledged to seek immediate medical treatment and possible surgery for a year-old baby boy stricken with hydrocephalus during a visit here Wednesday.
Teodoro, in an interview, said he would have infant Mohamiden Kusain and her parents Samareddin, 20 and Sarajane, 19, flown immediately to Manila.

“It’s sad. The infant should have been taken care of immediately,” he added. “The infant will get all the treatment she needs to get back to normal.”

Teodoro said that he used his personal resources to take care of the family’s needs while they complete treatment for the infant, one of the thousands of anonymous children of Mindanao affected by decades of government inaction, violence and conflict.

Teodoro was in Maguindanao to try to create a broad consensus among civil society groups and leaders, following the lifting of a week-old martial law imposed by the national government to quell an alleged rebellion by the ruling Ampatuan clan.

Teodoro also said that lack of medical facilities in the area has helped spawn unrest and instability in the region. He said his platform of government includes the strengthening of public healthcare by building more public hospitals and clinics in conflict-torn areas of the country’s southern island.

Begin rebuilding

He said a rebuilding of Mindanao could now begin in earnest to provide the region’s marginalized sectors with quality healthcare to save the lives of many poor children in the region. Mindanao has one of the highest children mortality rates in the country because of widespread poverty and continuing violence.

“We all have been harping about the need to develop the rural regions to make them our partners in our economic progress. It would be ideal if we would also allocate sufficient resources to these provinces to enable them to construct more hospitals and medical facilities to treat the poor,” Teodoro, the 1989 Philippine Bar examinations topnotcher, stressed.

He added that giving Maguin-danao’s poor access to quality healthcare was an effective tool in reducing the incidence of crime in the region. Many of the province’s small farmers and fisherfolks are forced into a life of crime because of their inability to provide their families with food, clothing, shelter and medicine.
“Giving them hope and a chance to better themselves and their families will certainly help in reducing incidents of violence in Maguin-danao,” he said.

He added that funds for modern health facilities could be facilitated through the pork-barrel funds of congressional representatives.

“By working together, we can do much to help Maguindanao, and our country rise again,” Teodoro said.

Palace on SWS

Also on Wednesday, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said that the leading presidential candidates were not as formidable as their showings in the latest SWS survey would suggest.

The ratings of the administration’s bet Teodoro and that of Sen. Manuel “Manny” Villar Jr. of the Nacionalista Party went up in the SWS survey of presidential candidates. But the Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino 3rd held the lead, favored by 59 percent of the respondents.
Compared with the previous survey released three months ago, Teodoro increased by 4-percentage points to 8 percent.

“If you look at formidables, it looks they are formidable but their strength can be eroded,” Ermita said. “When FVR [former President Fidel Ramos] and GMA [President Gloria Arroyo] ran, they were much below the ratings. Yet they were the ones who won because of their hard work during the campaign.”
He added, “I still have confidence that Secretary Teodoro will catch attention when he fully showcases his potentials.”

But as expected, the Liberal’s senatorial candidates believe that Aquino could maintain his high popularity. Referring to Aquino, lawyer Alex Lacson told The Manila Times on Tuesday, “This is not the case of someone offering himself. This is the case of people saying, ‘Why not him?’”

Lacson attended a roundtable interview with The Times along with other Senate bets Neric Acosta and Teofisto “TG” Guingona 3rd.

Still, Ermita said that with five months to go before the elections, Teodoro and running mate Edu Manzano could introduce themselves well to the people.

“The strategy is to have Sec. Teodoro move to provinces so his presence will be felt and known,” Ermita said. “This way, voters in other places are made aware of him. Sec. Teodoro got double-digit figures and we’re hopeful that as many people see and hear him face-off with other presidentiables his ratings improve even further.”

with reports from Angelo S. Samonte and Cris G. Odronia