Saint Christopher de Kalusugan

In order to become a saint, one of the requirements is a recorded, verifiable miracle attributed to the person by an individual or several people, who experienced miraculous healing or divine intervention after praying or petitioning a “holy” or godly individual who has expired and been dead for at least two years.

The miracle or divine intervention has to be recorded, reported, endorsed, investigated, scientifically and spiritually confirmed and then the potential sainthood goes through the formal process.

In recent history, society and media have grown impatient with the structured and prolonged processes, so they sped things up in the case of Mother Teresa of Calcutta by dubbing her the living saint long before she passed on. 

Sadly, church and mankind have made a life of suffering and death as requirements for sainthood, as if the greater one’s pain, the greater good one generates. This reminds me of the obituaries and platitudes that come too late for the dead and buried. We acknowledge all their contributions only when they are dead and gone.

While mulling over the state of public health in the Philippines, I realized that there are many individuals who regularly do good, perform “miracles” or help heal the poor and the downtrodden. Some more than others. Unfortunately, we are unable to appreciate them because they have a position, a title or they represent a business.

Unknown or “unrealized” by many Filipinos is that there is such an individual that many poor Filipinos turn to, call upon or consider as a source of “miracles,” especially for hospitalization and medicines. Many Filipinos actually benefit from the work he has done but don’t even realize it and often never actually see the man.

A number of health workers and public hospital administrators I have worked with refer to him as the patron saint of public health and hospitals and refer to him as St. Christopher de Kalusugan a.k.a Senator Christopher “Bong” Go.

While many members of Congress and the Senate do extend help for medical assistance, these are usually extended to constituents or in the form of “endorsement letters.” Senator Go, on the other hand, set up the Malasakit Centers and many