Miriam dares doc to check her medical records

Presidential candidate Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago invoked her constitutional “right to privacy” by withholding from the public her medical record as a lung cancer patient.

‘’That is my right to privacy,’’ Santiago said.

Before declaring her bid for the presidency, Santiago announced that she has licked her Stage 4 lung cancer while under the care of an American doctor. But a lady physician, Dr. Sylvia Claudio in a letter posted on Rappler doubted Santiago’s claim.

In her letter, Claudio said Santiago should be true to her word that she is ‘’cancer free’’ because she might not complete her presidential term should she win in the May 2016 presidential race.

‘’If you did receive a miracle, you should announce it and prove it because it’s a sure-fire way to gain the presidency. Your lowprofile announcement causes me to doubt you further,’’ Claudio wrote.

Claudio maintained that progress against Stage 4 is ‘’bleak’’ and ‘’highly improbable.’’

The feisty lady senator bristled at hints that she is faking her lung cancer.

‘’Now, if she wants to, she can go to St. Luke’s Global in Makati and she can formally ask there in writing, then St. Luke’s will follow their protocol and abide by it,’’ Santiago said in a phone interview with Senate reporters.

Patient-doctor relatioship Santiago stressed that she would follow what the hospital would say but she cited Civil and Criminal Code provisions that a lawyer cannot force a patient to tell the court on her patient-doctor relationship.

“All these are covered by private human rights,’’ she added.

She said her quest for the presidency does not give another person the right to force her to reveal her medical records.

After she was diagnosed with cancer in 2014, Santiago sought the help of a panel of doctors headed by former Department of Health (DoH) Secretary Esperanza Cabral. The group included Dr. Gary Lorenzo and Dr. Juan Martin Magsanoc, oncologists; and Dr. Ruth Divinagracia, pulmonologist. “I am not that easy to be mocked. I had presented myself to the Senate media. I have been to St. Luke’s, Global. I was admitted there for a week or two. For almost a year and a half, I have gone there almost every week. I don’t know what that woman wants. She just wants to scandalize my (presidential) campaign,” Santiago said.

Open floodgates Forcing her to prove that she is healthy, Santiago said she would open the floodgates for other demands such as the mental and financial health of candidates.

‘’That is why our laws do not provide for these matters. If they just want the benefit of my experience, there is what is called on my files a case narrative,’’ she added.

The narrative includes details from the time she entered the hospital and the discovery of her cancer to the time she left the hospital. These were transmitted to the US-based Sloan Kettering Cancer Center where a physician took over her case, she explained.

If Dr. Claudio suspects that she did not have a lung cancer, “why was I absent for a year-and-a half?,” she asked. But stressed even when she was on medical leave she was never remiss in her legislative duties.

Respect Miriam’s right For his part, Vice Presidential aspirant Sen. Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. said Sen. Santiago’s right to privacy should be respected.

Marcos said he believed Santiago’s word that she could stand up to the rigors of a presidential campaign leading to the May 2016 national elections after assuring the public that she is now cured of her stage 4 lung cancer.

“When she says she can withstand the rigors of the campaign, that she is already well, who am I to doubt Senator Miriam’s word?”, Marcos, Santiago’s personal choice as running mate said.

Marcos said talks are still on-going between his and Santiago’s camp to discuss the details of their alliance.

“Our talks are on track. We are forming a loose coalition in our camps,” Marcos, who is running under the Nacionalista Party (NP) added.