Which candidate has best cure for Laguna’s perennial health care woes?

During a campaign rally of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s senatorial candidates in Santa Rosa, Laguna on March 22, some audience members whom Rappler randomly spoke with said that if there’s one issue they want elective aspirants to address first, it would be health care.

For example, one woman who allowed to record our conversation but declined to give us her name said: “I want a big hospital here so poor individuals will be given assistance. Others have to go to the Philippine General Hospital (PGH). They die anyway.”

KC Barretto, 49, who was at another section of the crowd, curiously noted something similar: “If you don’t have the money, you will be asked to go to another hospital, in Batangas.”

The process is much more nuanced than that, but the lack of capable hospitals appears to be an issue close to the Laguna electorate’s heart, and candidates for governor are aware of it. As they start courting voters, they make grand promises on how to improve the health care situation for their constituents.

So whose words are the Lagunenses going to believe?

No operating tertiary hospital in Laguna

Laguna, the country’s fourth most populous province with 3.3 million residents, is a key driver of the Philippine economy. In 2023, it was the first province to surpass the trillion-peso mark in economic contributions, based on a report from the Philippine Statistics Authority.

It is also the only province in the Calabarzon region without a Level 3 public hospital.

In the Philippines, a Level 3 hospital offers the most advanced form of health care. It has all the facilities of a Level 1 (the most basic) and a Level 2 hospital, but also has a dialysis unit, a tertiary clinical laboratory, a physical medicine and rehabilitation unit, a third level X-ray, and a blood bank, among others.

This means that for indigent Laguna residents who need access to such facilities, the only option they have is to go to a private hospital, or seek medical care outside the province, such as the Batangas Medical Center or the PGH in Manila.

Currently, Laguna has nine district hospitals, eight of which are categorized as a Level 1 facility, and the other one a Level 2 facility.

During Rappler’s visit to Calamba on March 28, we took time to visit JP Rizal District Hospital, a Level 1 facility which has a 100-bed capacity. We saw some patients on dextrose just outside the building. Some patients’ relatives we spoke with said it’s not uncommon for people to wait for hours until a bed becomes available.

Others said though that besides a dirty restroom that sometimes does not have water, the facility is fine.

“I have two children and two nieces who gave birth here. It’s good, everything is free, although they are lacking in beds. It’s crowded inside,” said Leona Estayo, a 66-year-old Cabuyao resident.

On Facebook, the hospital tries to temper expectations about the kinds of services it can provide.

“There are limitations to both doctors’ licenses and the hospital itself, which is why some patients need to be transferred,” it once said. “We also handle emergency cases that hospitals in the first and second districts could not manage. We have more emergency cases than scheduled C-sections. The number of hospital beds is also limited, which is why two or even three patients sometimes have to share a single bed.”

Aragones’ promise

Sol Aragones, a former broadcaster and three-term congresswoman, sticks to an easily digestible message of improving health care.

“Our first priority is to have a well-equipped hospital here in Laguna, complete with medicine and medical facilities. I also want to hold office more often in a public hospital than in the capitol,” she told Rappler.

“We will prohibit rude employees. We don’t intend to remove them, but it’s important to improve their attitude and increase their numbers. They’re overworked and too few, so it’s crucial to have more of them,” she added.

After her failed gubernatorial bid in 2022, Aragones founded Akay ni Sol, a civic advocacy movement which is now among over 100 groups seeking a party-list seat in Congress. Akay, meanwhile, is her political party, which she says, has more than 100 candidates for local races in Laguna.

In her campaign events, she tells voters that despite her 2022 loss, she remained active in public service.

She is the only gubernatorial candidate with a party not allied with the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., as the three other candidates are being carried by political parties that are part of the chief executive’s Alyansa para sa Bagong Pilipinas coalition.

Administration candidates

When asked what she believes is the biggest flaw of her opponents, Aragones said she would rather focus on her own advocacies. “Whatever their program is, we respect it.”

Whether she likes it or not, however, the criticisms of a less-than-ideal health care situation in Laguna points to the direction of the incumbent provincial administration. Governor Ramil Hernandez, who defeated Aragones in 2022, has ruled the capitol since 2014, alongside his running mate in his past three electoral bids, Vice Governor Karen Agapay.

Governor Ramil is term-limited, and he now hopes to pass the baton to his wife, Laguna 2nd District Representative Ruth Hernandez of Lakas CMD, the party led by Speaker Martin Romualdez. Agapay, who didn’t secure her former ally’s endorsement, is also running for governor, under the banner of Partido Federal, the party of President Marcos.

Also on the ballot is Santa Rosa Representative Dan Fernandez, who is being carried by National Unity Party, a formation allied with the incumbent national administration. (We have reached out to Fernandez six times since February to obtain information about his campaign, but he has not replied.)

At the end of the day, politics is local, as the saying goes. Still, the lack of a single national administration candidate puts the three of them in a tricky spot. Representative Hernandez and Vice Governor Agapay specifically, have to share the successes of the provincial administration, but also answer for its imperfections.

Hernandez and Agapay’s track records

For example, both are taking credit for People’s Day, a financial aid distribution event by the provincial government for qualified beneficiaries.

The two politicians also boast about the ongoing construction of the Laguna Regional Hospital, a Level 3, 300-bed facility that will be under the direct control of the Department of Health. President Marcos signed the bill into law in November 2024.

Congresswoman Hernandez is the principal author of the bill, and the one who lobbied for the measure’s passage in the House. She first filed the measure in 2019, her first term in Congress.

“The initial budget for that in 2024 was P150 million, we fought for it. In 2025, we fought for it again. All in all, the budget is P250 million,” Hernandez told Rappler.

“My partnership with Governor [Ramil] has been beautiful. I fought for the passage of the law and the funding, while he made sure there’s land. There’s land in Bae owned by the provincial government that has been donated to the Department of Health,” she added.

Vice Governor Agapay, meanwhile, said the provincial board which she presides over reviewed the proposal before the project became a reality. Her strategy to separate her efforts from those of Governor Hernandez was apparent: she said the projects of the provincial administration won’t come to fruition without approval from the board she leads.

“We studied the proposal for three to four years before we gave the governor the authority to enter into an agreement with the Department of Health for the construction of the Laguna Regional Hospital,” she explained in an interview with the YouTube channel Diskurso on Air. (We reached out to Agapay’s office for a phone interview, but the staff sent us a video clip instead.)

Immediate action

Agapay said the regional hospital would probably take five years before it is completed. For Laguna indigent patients who do not have the luxury of time, immediate relief may matter more than long-term, legacy projects.

This is perhaps why in campaign speeches, gubernatorial candidates offer a vision for health care that the people of Laguna can easily imagine.

Aragones promises to build Akay ni Sol pharmacies in all 30 towns and cities across the province, ensuring that indigent patients get their medicines for free.

Hernandez guarantees to strengthen the provincial administration’s “blue card” program, which currently provides free or discounted medical services and laboratory examinations, medicines during confinement, and burial assistance of P10,000 for card holders. She eyes a tie-up with drug stores so the provincial government can shoulder medicine purchases of indigents.

Agapay vows to bring completely free hospitalization to Laguna, adding that she had obtained assurance from Partido Federal president and South Cotabato Governor Rey Tamayo about the project. The local government of the southern Philippine province says on its website that South Cotabato has a “zero billing policy, which guarantees free medical treatment” at three public hospitals.

Which politicians will deliver on their promises? It’s a question Laguna voters now need to ask themselves. – Rappler.com

* All quotes in Filipino were translated into English, and some were shortened for brevity.