Panget talaga ng ilaw pag fluorecent o sadyang mukha ko lang hehe charot!

Yesterday May 2nd of 2017, I had the privilege to attend the third and final reading of Senate Bill No. 1345. This is commonly known as the Philippine Mental Health Bill which is sponsored by Senator Risa Hontiveros. The bill was approved on its final reading with the 19 senators present unanimously voting affirmative for it (Finally! Someting they all agree on! Chos).

People who came to support the bill mostly wore green, the color of mental health. Green ribbon pins(such as the one I'm wearing above)were given out. Besides getting to see Kylie Versoza(who attended yesterday and whom when I first laid eyes on her, I wondered sino ba itong magandang nilalalang), what happens now after the Mental Health Act of 2017 gets approved?

The bills aims to make mental health care more accessible "at the community level", says Risa. This is great because for one to have access to a psychiatrist, you need to pay thousands in private hospitals. I applaud institutions such as Philippine General Hospital and the National Center for Mental Health for providing affordable care and medicines but honestly, they shouldn't be the only ones.

I used to regularly go to NCMH and I would get to talk to the patients waiting there. Imagine how so many of them come from provinces and would line up just so they will get a 15-30 minute session with the only out-patient psychiatrists available at that time? Lucky if they're the few who can afford the private sessions with a private psychiatrist in the place but not everyone has that privilege. Mental health care is treated as a "privilege" here when it is actually a basic human right. With the bill passed, it's definitely a start to make all communities have the access to this least recognized health condition in this country.

By saying "least recognized", I mean that mental health still gets stigmatized. Sometimes, I feel that is why psychiatric care and counselling isn't as widespread because it isn't something people are aware of. It's something people easily dismiss due to the fact that it's something that's "only in the head" which really isn't. It's much more complicated and complex and sometimes the people who suffer from it do not understand it themselves until it's too late. Those who suffer from it do not find themselves comfortable in sharing it because it's still considered taboo.

And this is what the Mental Health Act means to me: a beacon of light. It means that now it's brought on a national level and recognized now by this policy, no one experiencing problems with their mental health would be afraid. To be frank, it will still take a lifetime for many others to truly understand what mental health actually is. All that matters now is that with this approval, those who battle the demons inside of them won't have to feel they do not matter. 😊

Very, very short rant/kwento about my Session Hall experience:

I was a little outraged with some of those who came to "support" the bill. During the hearing, the Bill took no more than 10 minutes to be approved by the senators. I remember the people in front of me saying "Yun lang? Ganun lang?" and the girls behind me said way worse. First, one retorted "We just wasted time going here" and then "We took that time to find parking." Her other friend said "Wala bang away? That's it?" Ughhhh, the nerve!!!

Of course, it offends me that these people say these things. I personally experience a condition(will share about it soon and when I feel ready)and in those 10 minutes, I feel my life--as well as others--have changed forever. It's a milestone moment because this is the first law of its kind in the Philippines and I feel our voices were finally heard.

So yeah, suck your faces if it seemed so "bilis" and "unexciting" that the actual process of approval wasn't as drama-filled. I commuted two hours and walked under the scorching sun to get to the Senate(Because I thought it was in the actual GSIS Building lol I'm so tanga) and had no complaints. 😛

Photo from Risa Hontiveros' FB page

Guys, sobrang idol ko si Risa Hontiveros! I swear! When she entered the Session Hall, I wanted to run up to her and say "YOU INSPIRE ME TALAGA!!!" I do not have a photo of her speaking because 1.) Guards were so strict over using phones inside (A poor dude near me was caught by the guard taking a picture of Risa and had to delete it in front of the guard) and 2.) I just focused on listening to her words. I will never, ever forget the last thing she said regarding the bill:

"Our people with mental health needs will no longer suffer silently in the dark. They will no longer endure an invisible illness and fight an invisible war."

(Seriously had to write that down on my notebook and check online if tama nasulat ko and thank goodness oo naman lol).

And to add, number 3.) She just suddenly disappeared after she made a speech on the deaths of Dr. Jaja Sinolinding and Dr. Drey Perlas. Kaya poor me, walang photo op.

But that's okay! Looking at the photo above, she held the same #MHActNow card as I did hihi.