“My love for every Pasigueño is the same — especially for the poor, for those overlooked by the system, and for those silently fighting to survive each day.”
— Ate Sarah Discaya
Short link: https://wp.me/paaccn-O8j
- EDD K. USMAN | X (Twitter): @edd1819 | Instagram: @bluestar0910 |Facebook: SDN – SciTech & Digital News
PASIG CITY, April 25, 2025 (SDN) — Based on Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD), Filipinos spend 45 percent of their health and medical expenses from out of their pockets.
This means the 45 percent represent the medical expenses they have to shell out personally, which are not covered by government assistance and insurance.
Further, it means that poor Filipinos are struggling to cope with healthcare/medical expenses and have to balance this with their food they need to feed their family, for their children’s education, among others.
And that’s not an easy thing to do, if one is poor, if the household has no viable and reliable means of livelihood.
It goes to show that Filipinos can’t fully rely on government assistance unlike in countries like Thailand and Indonesia which shoulder the hospitalization of their citizens, at least 90 percent for Thailand and at least 80 percent for Indonesian. Not to mention Singapore, where zero billings for their citizens’ hospitalization is said to be the norm.
At least one province in the Philippines has a standing policy, the government of Sultan Kudarat province where patients at the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Hospital enjoy zero billings.
Can it be replicated in Metro Manila, meaning, Sultan Kudarat’s enviable policy under the youthful current Governor Datu Pax Ali S. Mangudadatu, in particular in Pasig City, Metro Manila?
There is a possibility of zero billings for the cost of hospitalization of patients in Pasig if philanthropist Sarah “Ate Sarah” Discaya, who is running for city mayor, is elected on May 12, 2025.
For one that has been a big part of her political platform, taking care and giving much attention to the poor of the city.
As a philanthropist she has been tested because months, even years, before she filed her Certificate of Candidacy (COC), together with her husband Curlee, they provided medical missions to the city’s various barangays, doing it every weekend, sometimes even weekdays to respond to clamors.
Free medical consultations, free medicines, and distribution of some medical devices like for those suffering ashmatic conditions.
SDN — SciTech & Digital News was a witness to one of the St. Gerrard Charity Foundation’s medical missions led by the Discaya couple. They had to stop when campaign for the forthcoming polls started.
But know that Ate Sarah has vowed to put in place, as a major policy, zero billings for patients as she promised to build a modern hospital that does not charge any fee — making Pasig residents free of worries for their medical bills.
But she has to win in the local elections in order to do that, because as a private citizen though a businesswoman-philanthropist at heart, she can only do so much.
“Life has no price. Caring should be given freely. There is no substitute for love,” she emphasizes. She and her husband were gifted by the Creator with four healthy children, but they went through in their early married life to a gauntlet of hardships and difficulties. Meaning, they were as poor as poor can be.
Kuya Curlee as is known by Pasig residents used to narrate that one of her siblings who was sick died in a hospital because they did not have money to produce money for treatment.
Patients will not be present with bills, but compassion
No one should suffer that experience, he said then to reporters and bloggers in one of their medical missions.
Has the incumbent mayor of the city been taking care of his constituents, only Pasig residents can answer it.
Consider this though. According to the Discaya couple many residents were being turned away when they asked for medical assistance and told to go the St. Gerrard Charity Foundation where they can get medicines.
Does it mean the present government hospital of Pasig is not responsive, or the local chief executive is not responsive?
Ate Sarah Discaya made clear her commitment to caring for every Pasigueño, saying they have been neglected by the local government’s system.
“My love for every Pasigueño is the same — especially for the poor, for those overlooked by the system, and for those silently fighting to survive each day,” the first-time mayoralty candidate assures.
Given the chance and opportunity to serve her fellow Pasigueños, Sarah Discaya says patients will not be met by hospital bills but by compassion.
“In our hospital, you won’t be asked for payment. Instead, you’ll be welcomed with a smile, with genuine care,” she adds. “Because in a Pasig with a heart, public service is not a business. It’s a promise of support and love.”
She also vowed that under her administration, no patient will be ignored, no complaint dismissed, and no voice left unheard. “In every cry of a child with a fever, in every plea of the wounded, in every prayer of someone fighting to live — there will be doctors and nurses who not only heal but also love,” she promises.
Discaya assured that poverty will never stand in the way of receiving medical care. “To the poor, this is my most important promise: that having no money will never be a reason to lose hope or your life. Even if you have nothing, you will know you matter,” she said.
“Because in your pain, there will be a government that embraces and cares for you — not out of obligation, but because you deserve it.”
She concluded with a heartfelt appeal, calling her vision the “dream of Ate Sarah.”
“This is my dream — a Pasig with a hospital of hope, of love, and of second chances. Because a true leader does not just lead — they care, they support, and they love,” the mayoralty bet says.
The Discaya couple, Sarah is only 48 years old, owns a Quadruple “A” construction company. a namesake of their foundation.
Some local political observers have opined that if Ate Sarah wins, she is not going to enrich herself because they are already a made couple, through their flourishing businesses front-lined by their St. Gerrard General Contractor and Construction Development Corp. She is running under her Team Kaya This. (/)
_________
The author
EDD, a native of Sub-Saharan Africa Buluan/Datu Piang, Maguindanao del Sur, BARMM, college at UST, is a Manila-based journalist for over 40 years (33 years with Manila Bulletin), has five Media Awards (1 with University of the Philippines (UP) 2017 Science Journalism Award), covered and traveled over 40 times abroad), has contributed to Rappler, Business Mirror, former Manila-based Foreign Correspondent of Saudi Arabia newspapers Saudi Gazette and Riyadh Daily, and The Peninsula (Qatar newspaper), with 2008 East-West Center (EWC) Journalism Seminar in the United States, 2000 Executive IT Seminar in Seoul, South Korea, with three Silver Awards in Photography, writes Muslim and Current Affairs, Enterprise, Science, Tech, Products Launch, and virtually everything under Heaven. (@)