Dennis Gaviola

Article (news)

Salve Ibaňez

ABS-CBN News

<div>THE MEDICAL BILL IS STILL DUE</div>Three weeks. A grieving widow. I hope the hospitals&#x27; legal teams have stopped sitting on the paperwork.Maria Lourdes Sulit lost her husband Marvin on June 4 after he died of what was known to be a brain hematoma, unable to get the surgery he needed because the family couldn&#x27;t produce a P1 million deposit in time. The story went viral. PhilHealth issued a statement. A congressman filed a resolution. Health advocates condemned the system. The country cried collectively. And then?Boardroom Tea has learned that as of last week, PhilHealth has yet to receive the paperwork and documents that would allow the agency to process the medical reimbursements legally due to Mrs. Sulit.  Let that sink in. A widow is waiting for money that the law says she is owed. The clock on her grief is running. And somewhere, lawyers are reviewing documents that should have been filed weeks ago.This is not a PhilHealth problem anymore. This is a healthcare provider accountability problem.Republic Act 10932 — the Anti-Hospital Deposit Law — explicitly prohibits demanding a deposit as a prerequisite for emergency care. That law has been on the books since 2017. It carries criminal penalties. It presumes liability on the part of the hospital when a patient dies after being denied admission. The presumption of liability isn&#x27;t Boardroom Tea&#x27;s opinion. It is the text of the law.PhilHealth&#x27;s own Circular No. 2025-0020 provides that members who die within 24 hours of emergency admission are covered under the Outpatient Emergency Care Benefit. Marvin Sulit was a 25-year contributor. He qualified. Did the hospital desk staff (they aren’t from Philhealth by the way, just so you know) who turned his widow away know that?I am just asking, as we all should. This could happen to any of the 120 million Filipinos who are Philhealth members.The question Boardroom Tea is now asking is the one nobody seems to want to answer publicly: what exactly is causing the delay? Because if the goal is &quot;how to minimize institutional liability,&quot; then the delay itself becomes part of the harm. Every week those documents sit unsigned is another week Mrs. Sulit cannot access what is rightfully hers.Mrs. Sulit shouldn&#x27;t have to fight this hard for what her husband spent 25 years earning.<div>DANA KURSH, UNFILTERED</div>Israeli Ambassador Dana Kursh does not mince words. That was evident when she sat down with us on Business Outlook yesterday.When the subject of three Israeli nationals detained in Siargao for overstaying came up—amid our discussion on the possibility of direct flights from Tel Aviv to Manila and the ongoing Philippines-Israel Free Trade Agreement negotiations—she didn&#x27;t deflect, didn&#x27;t soften, and didn&#x27;t reach for diplomatic ambiguity.Any Israeli national found misbehaving in the Philippines, she said plainly, will be held accountable for their offenses.Her message to her compatriots has been consistent: &quot;Respect the local culture, respect the law, and respect the community that welcomes you.&quot; She had already made that clear during her visit to Siargao, where incidents involving Israeli tourists—brawls, and a particularly ugly harassment of a local café owner for displaying a Palestinian flag—had rattled a community that built its livelihood on being welcoming. Kursh&#x27;s candor matters, because the diplomatic instinct in these situations is usually to circle the wagons. She didn&#x27;t. She acknowledged the problem, condemned it, and called for accountability. That&#x27;s what a good ambassador does.The bigger story, though, is what she and the Philippines are trying to build.DTI Secretary Cristina Roque and Israel Minister of Economy Nir Barkat have formally launched negotiations for a free trade agreement, with potential collaboration areas spanning critical minerals, artificial intelligence, and cybersecurity. Bilateral trade is already at roughly $411 million in combined goods in 2024 (Philippine imports of $269 million and exports of $143 million), with services like BPO and cybersecurity pushing the real figure even higher. The FTA is meant to multiply that — exponentially if Ambassador Dana’s wishes come true. The Philippines and Israel have more history than most Filipinos realize. When every other nation closed its doors to Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, the Philippines opened its arms. From 1937 to 1941, President Manuel Quezon opened the Philippine Commonwealth to approximately 1,200–1,300 Jewish refugees, offering them land for resettlement and personally ensuring that families could rebuild their lives in safety. The refugees who survived would later become some of the earliest settlers of the modern state of Israel. It is a gesdture the Israelis remember: to this day, Israel grants visa-free access to all Filipinos—a gesture of gratitude for the Philippines&#x27; open door at the darkest moment in Jewish history. bAnd then there are the cherry tomatoes. Israeli breeders collaborating with Marks &amp; Spencer in the 1970s and 1980s created the first commercially viable, shelf-stable, sweet cherry tomato varieties that led to their global popularity. The delicious little spheres gracing your salad bowl today? That&#x27;s Israeli agricultural science at work. Good trade. Good history. Good tomatoes. There&#x27;s a lot to build on<div>Boardroom Tea comes out every Wednesday.</div>

She acknowledged the problem, condemned it, and called for accountability.

Boardroom Tea: Israeli envoy doesn't mince words with misbehaving countrymen

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Boardroom Tea: Israeli envoy doesn't mince words with misbehaving countrymen

Salve Ibaňez,

ABS-CBN News

Published July 01, 2026 10:00 PM PHT

Read More:

Boardroom Tea

PhilHealth

Israeli tourists

DTI

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