The grief of losing a loved one never comes lightly, but for Dorothy Socobos, 61, from Talisay City, the weight of sorrow was nearly matched by the crushing financial burden of her husband’s hospitalization. In March 2023, her husband, Magdaleno, was admitted to Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City. The days that followed blurred into a cycle of worry, prayer, and paperwork—until, finally, the inevitable.
“Namatay s’ya, sir,” Dorothy recounted, her voice trailing into a silence that needed no explanation. The pain of loss, the unanswered questions, the exhausting back-and-forth with hospital administrators—it was a grief made heavier by a looming bill that had climbed to PhP300,000.
For families like the Socoboses, hospital expenses often feel like a punishment layered onto an already unbearable tragedy. The numbers pile up as fast as the emotions do. But when hope seemed distant, the Malasakit Center at VSMMC provided an answer.
Malasakit Centers are one-stop shops that help impoverished patients reduce their hospital costs to the least possible amount. Senator Christopher “Bong” Go is the principal author and sponsor of Republic Act No. 11463, or the Malasakit Centers Act of 2019, which institutionalized the Malasakit Centers program.
For Dorothy, navigating the hospital’s billing office had been like wandering a labyrinth. Then, she found herself at the Malasakit Center—its purpose was clear, its process seamless.
As of now, 167 Malasakit Centers are operational across the country, poised to assist with patients’ medical expenses. The Department of Health (DOH) reports that the Malasakit Center program has already provided aid to more than 17 million Filipinos.
Dorothy’s words carried no embellishment, no excessive gratitude—just the straightforward relief of someone who had found herself staring down an impossible sum and, in the end, owed nothing.
“Tinutulungan n’ya talaga kami sa problema namin. Sana ipagpatuloy mo pa ang proyekto mong tumutulong sa publiko, Senator. More power.”
Senator Go’s advocacy has ensured that families like the Socoboses no longer have to fear the full brunt of medical expenses. The legislation that institutionalized Malasakit Centers has turned what was once an unpredictable patchwork of assistance into a structured, accessible system for those in need.
“Bilang inyong Mr. Malasakit, anumang pagsubok ang ating haharapin sa susunod na mga araw, patuloy akong magseserbisyo sa inyong lahat dahil bisyo ko na ang magserbisyo at naniniwala ako na ang serbisyo sa tao ay serbisyo sa Diyos,” underscored Go who is known as Mr. Malasakit for his compassionate service to Filipinos in need.
