Manila mayoral candidate Francisco “Isko” Moreno Domagoso plans to amend Manila City Ordinance 8973, which requires workers to obtain a health permit from a city-backed facility for their employment, if he wins in May.
The ordinance sparked a massive protest from University of Santo Tomas (UST) workers and students last year. UST has its own medical facility to conduct health checks on employees to assess their fitness for work. Workers found the requirement to obtain a permit from the city by undergoing tests at government-owned laboratories redundant and financially burdensome.
In an interview with the UST Varsitarian, the former mayor said he would immediately direct the city council to review the ordinance for amendments. “I will direct the city council under the administrative measure,” he said. “It is outdated.”
Moreno explained that the ordinance was passed during the height of the pandemic when medical certificates were required for workers to return to work, leading to a surge in requests for medical frontliner accreditation.
“Remember, there was a time when swabbing centers were everywhere, and everyone wanted to be a medical frontliner. We sought a certain level of control amid the chaos. The question now is, are we still in a chaotic situation, or have we entered a state of normalization?” he said.
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Moreno clarified that a health permit is still necessary for industries involving food handling and service. The law could be reconfigured “[to address] a particular segment of society.”
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“You have to check if a person is working in a hospital. If the hospital can give a [health] permit, why do you have to require it?” the mayoral candidate asked. “Since you work in a hospital, why not get your laboratory check-up done there? The hospital itself will not allow you [to work] if you have something in your body or if you are sick. Logic will dictate among right minds,” he added.
In the same interview, Moreno expressed his support for critics of the ordinance and criticized the current city administration for refusing to entertain discussions on the matter.
“The least thing that you can do is to lend an ear. We are not required to do anything [right away]. At the very least, you just lend an ear. If they are making sense, the next course of action is to address it. What did they do? I think they even filed a lawsuit,” the former mayor said.
Moreno was referring to the cyber libel case filed by Dr. Arnold “Poks” Pangan, head of Manila’s City Health Department, against National Federation of Labor Vice President Elijah “Eli” San Fernando, who, in a TikTok video, accused Dr. Pangan and his wife, Mayor Honey Lacuna, of deliberately refusing to allow UST employees to acquire their health certificates from the UST hospital for profit.
In his complaint, Pangan debunked San Fernando’s allegations and described them as “false, [without] factual basis, [and] aimed [at destroying] my reputation as a person and as a public servant.”
San Fernando, however, denies any malicious intent and insists that the statements he made against the ordinance were directed at Pangan’s office and are a “matter of public interest.” He said they were “mere expressions of disapproval and disappointment which are not themselves defamatory statements and without reference to any specific person.”
The party list candidate, in his counter-affidavit, said that “to regard such scrutiny as defamatory would undermine the fundamental principle that ‘public office is a public trust,’ as well as the constitutionally guaranteed right to ‘freedom of speech’ under the Philippine Constitution.”
For his part, Moreno lamented the filing of the lawsuit and addressed San Fernando, saying, “That’s so unfortunate. You were just voicing out people’s feelings, and you ended up getting sued.”
Moreno supported San Fernando’s allegation that the city earns from the regulatory fees that people pay to acquire permits, saying, “You know what the bottom line is there? Income.”
Moreno clarified that fees for such permits were an important component of the ordinance when it was passed during the pandemic as a strategy to regulate the surge in swabbing facilities and requests for accreditation, and to calm the situation down.
“Back in the day, you didn’t really worry about the fees. Fees are necessary because they’re regulatory fees. So what I did back then was take a shotgun approach to calm things down, then start configuring what is essential and what is not. Because you’re in a pandemic situation, and there are so many moving parts. Now, the mood and environment have settled,” he said.
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Moreno stressed that refusing UST employees the option to use their own facility is “just making things harder for the employee.”
Isko Moreno has not personally met with the UST employees because he does not want to be accused of exploiting them for political purposes. He, however, has addressed them through San Fernando, saying, “Eli, tell them that one day, when we’re back, I will amend that law.”
