“Gapos”, another revisited documentaries from I Witness series
The year 2017 just like the title in this documentary episode from the I Witness series, my country Philippines is still bound to mental health problems that receive less attention in the national government. The ratio of psychiatrist doctors in the Philippines that year is 600 to 80 million Filipino citizens. In May that year the Philippine senate passed the historic Mental Health law that would eventually help Filipinos that suffered mental health illness. Meanwhile the I Witness tackle the issue to convey the situation of an ordinary Filipino with mental illness in the rural area where there are no proper psychiatrists in their locality.
Miss Kara David and her team travel to Ormoc City in the province of Leyte in the Visayas region, where the city had no psychiatrist and patients that have mental illness would eventually travel to Tacloban City, a 3 hours drive. The I Witness Team met a young 22 year old man named Teteng bound with a metal chain to a wood in an old ramshackle Sakada quarters that would be also where some piglets reside. Teteng looks like a dog in a chain in that condition, so inhumane that the chain that binds in his waist is so tight that it hurts him in every move he makes. Not even a meter long chain where Teteng can only do two basic things: stand and sit on the floor.
Teteng and Miss K had a nice conversation where Teteng revealed that his father chained him because he had made a mistake and he is “Lipong” local dialect word that describes a crazy person. According to Teteng’s father he has been in that condition since he was 10 years old. A child laborer “Sakada”, Teteng lost consciousness while working in the field and after that incident he became a menace in their community, where he would throw stones, chase and hurt other children. His father chain him for he can not be a harm to others in their community and also can not roam to nearby villages where he would eventually be lost.
Miss K said that in her 1 hour conversation and observation of Teteng,she concluded that Teteng is merely a meek child and asked herself whether Teteng is really crazy or just been made to be crazy by the chain that binds him. In the last 12 years Teteng’s world is the pig corral, the piglets as his playmate and the chain his close companion. In this place is where Teteng’s spend half of his life and all his teenage years chained.
The I Witness team also visited five more patients that have the same condition of Teteng, the five other patients are Dodong, Geraldine and Maricris with her uncle Pepe all in a nearby town. After spending time and observing all the 5 patients, Miss K and the I Witness team decided to take a leap of faith without any promises to the patient family but give all those five patients a glimmer of hope through taking them to Eastern Visayas Regional Hospital at Tacloban City where they are going to be consulted by a proper psychiatrist.
The diagnosis of Teteng, Dodong, and Geraldine all the three patients are suffering schizophrenia while Maricris and her uncle Pepe are both showing major depressive disorder symptoms. They all were given one jab of an anti schizophrenia drug. After a week the I witness team visited all the patients and saw some improvement on all of them where Teteng is no longer bound to a chain and is doing some gardening but the doctor had said that it is all temporary if they are all not given a monthly check-up and jab of medicine.
Final Thoughts
Mental illness can be passed through DNA and can be triggered by a variety of factors like stress,anxiety,drugs, alcohol, unmet physical needs, traumatic events and many others that cause a gradual effect on one's mental health. The Philippines is a hotbed for mental illness for the Philippines is a third world country where everyday is a struggle for an average Filipinos and also bothered by natural disasters like typhoons and flooding. When yearly rainy seasons come to the Philippines, most Filipinos that live in the flood prone area or near the seashore feel fear,insecurity and anxiety that can trigger a person's gradual mental illness.Hopefully the Mental Health Law of the Philippines could give Filipinos that have mental illness some optimism where the law states that a compulsory treatment of certain people who have a mental disorder. It is the main piece of legislation that covers the assessment, treatment and rights of people with a mental health disorder.
As a Filipino, all I can say is the fight of my country against mental illness still has a long way to go. The country's mental health budget had almost doubled for next year 2023 from the PHP568. 04 million in 2022 to 1 billion. A significant stride in the right direction from 2017 but still my country's health programs are so hard to access for an average Filipino more so those in the rural areas. Thus a Filipino can sometimes die waiting for his/her access to a public hospital.
Reference:
I-Witness: "Gapos," a documentary by Kara David (full episode)