ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews / 24 March) — A government physician has raised alarm over the growing impact of rising fuel prices, not only on workers’ daily lives but also on access to healthcare, calling the issue a “public health concern” that demands urgent attention.

Dr. Norvie Jalani, an epidemiologist at the Zamboanga City Medical Center, said that as a public health doctor, she sees fuel price increases having “very real effect on people’s health,” mainly because of rising transportation expenses.

“When transportation becomes expensive, patients think twice — or they doubt — going to the hospital,” she in an interview with MindaNews.

Jalani illustrated the situation with a common scenario: “A mother with a sick child will have to calculate her tricycle fare before she even thinks about the consultation fee. That’s where the breakdown happens.”

In many cases, the barrier is not the cost of treatment itself but the cost of reaching healthcare facilities, she explained. “People don’t see healthcare as out of reach because of the doctor — they see it as out of reach because they can’t afford to get there,” Jalani said.

“Honestly, every time another fuel price hike happens, the first thing that hits me isn’t the headline; it’s the next day’s fare,” she pointed out. “This is the hard reality for all of us — I repeat, all of us — in government service. Our salaries don’t move every Tuesday or with the price of gas,” Jalani said.

She said the effect of the oil price hike is felt by public servants who commute long distances.

“My colleagues, who commute from far-flung barangays — including me — just to show up, we feel it the hardest. Like we are already serving the public and yet we borrow money just to get home,” the physician added.

Despite common perceptions that professionals like doctors are financially secure, she pushed back against that assumption. “Although I am a physician and a government employee, some people might assume [life] is comfortable. But I’ll be honest: it is very difficult,” Jalani said.

“At some point, I have to ask: who’s looking out for the people who look out for everyone else?” she asked.

Jalani pointed out what they described as a gap in government support, referring to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) in Region IX rolling out emergency cash assistance to affected drivers to help ease the burden of increasing fuel costs and declining income.

“We, the middle class, are the ones left behind. Some sectors have fuel subsidies, but I don’t hear the same for government employees,” the doctor noted. (Frencie L. Carreon / MindaNews)