People coming and going out of Lanao
DESPITE that Marawi had already given birth to thousands of college graduates, hundreds of doctors, nurses, accountants, engineers, and many more professionals; despite that Meranaws were able to study in some of the best universities in the country and even the globe, Marawi remains poor and lacking.
Last Wednesday, we took a former co-faculty member of mine to supposedly be admitted to Marawi’s Amai Pakpak Medical Center (APMC).
Marawi City’s public hospital was not like the stereotypical commoner’s hospitals that people complain about. The place was really clean and smelled nice inside. They had a competitive set of equipment and services that address the immediate medical needs of the people of Marawi, earning them a number of awards, grants, and recognitions.
The best part for me is, APMC has insanely affordable hospital fees. Their laboratory fees were almost or more than half the price of other hospital’s. When I was taken there once, I only payed about a thousand for the laboratory fees and they even provided a free bag of dextrose for me (yes, they are new, should you ask).
My ex co-worker, that day, had five shots of painkillers injected on him. Yet, we were not charged for any of the medicine. We only paid for those we bought from the pharmacy and the lab fees.
Unfortunately, APMC did not have a resident urologist and thus, cannot admit our patient. They could only recommend a urologist in Iligan City.
That very night, we had to drive to Iligan City and arrange a transfer to Mercy Community Hospital for the recommended urologist.
We actually did not have enough time to find out if other hospitals in Marawi had a urologist, but that time, we can only take the APMC staff’s recommendations.
During the siege, there was a news report that told that Marawi only had less than a dozen doctors and nurses. This was not true.
But what’s true is that Marawi and Lanao del Sur need more doctors for other specializations like oncology, psychiatry, nephrology, neurology, and others. Other than the medical field, the region also needs more competitive educators, planners, engineers, managers, and other professionals.
Lanao del Sur still suffers from problems such as in waste management and food and water sanitation, as well as poor peace keeping, road and traffic issues, and dipping literacy rates, and rising number of school dropouts, among other. Marawi had carried this weight even before the siege.
But the problem with tiny towns such as ours is that most people who come from here, after making names for themselves and acquiring imperative skills for a region’s development, remain on the metropolitan or would go off to find greener pastures. Only a few actually return.
People who leave Lanao del Sur argue that it is because there are very little opportunities in Marawi. There is also the persistent cultural problem and safety issues.
According to one study, most Meranaws left the Lanao regions and went to other parts of the country because of ‘rido’ or clan wars. In order to secure their family’s lives, they fled from the sight of their enemies.
Even though the Mindanao problem might have been the reason, these difficulties might also be answered if the Meranaws who were nurtured outside Lanao would come back and help rebuild – and restructure – their city.
Their return might just be the answer to their very complaints. Sun. Star CDO