She gave birth. And then she died.

She gave birth. And then she died. - TH!NK ABOUT IT

Click the link above. The author I.C. Gonzales writes, inter alia, about death caused by poverty, in the midst of the multi-billion culture of corruption in the Philippines for generations, thus:

1. Indeed, maternal deaths remain rampant in a country of 92 million people sharing a budget of at least P1 trillion or USD20.8 billion a year.

2. Given this situation, the Philippine government, particularly the Department of Health has conceded that meeting Millennium Development Goal 5 by 2015 would be very difficult. It has noted this problem in its progress report on the MDGs which I have cited in a previous entry.

3. The goal is to reduce the maternal mortality ratio by 75 percent between 1990 and 2015. In the Philippines, the target is to bring the ratio down to 52 per 100,000 live births by 2015 from the current 162 per 100,000 live births.

4. Midwives play a crucial role in providing maternal healthcare, especially in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas and those affected by armed conflict where doctors and nurses are scarce. Furthermore, there are an estimated 17,500 midwives registered under the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) working in the public health sector, the article said. But that is barely enough to service the 41,841 barangays (the smallest government unit) throughout the archipelago nation.

Where is social justice (e.g., universal, inherent and human right to health, right to life, right to dignity, right to pursuit of happiness, etc.) in such a despicable scheme of things?