PASAY CITY—Senate Committee on Health and Demography begins its hearing on Tuesday, December 9, 2025 regarding the country's most pressing health crises including the fight against HIV, tuberculosis, and challenges in autism care are being fundamentally driven by deep-seated inequality. 

Committee Chairperson and Senate Deputy Majority Leader Risa Hontiveros spearheaded the session and delivered a stark message directly stressing that the Universal Health Care (UHC) law faces failure unless systemic reforms are immediately implemented. 

“The fight against HIV and TB and all health conditions is a fight for the rights to health, dignity and social justice. HIV and TB reveal the same truth, disease thrives where inequality persists.” Senator Hontiveros in her opening speech.

Senator Hontiveros pushed a clear agenda: overhaul the current approach by directly addressing the disparities that prevent vulnerable communities from accessing essential medical services and diagnostics.

To combat this, the committee focused on strengthening grassroots health systems by reviewing and enhancing the Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers (BHWs). Hontiveros emphatically warned that these community-level workers—the literal first line of defense in impoverished and remote areas—must be both empowered, protected, and fairly compensated to succeed. 

“This is why we’re revisiting the Magna Carta of Barangay Health Workers, it isn’t just a labor bill, it is the backbone of Universal Health Care. Without empowered, protected and fairly compensated  BHWs, our reforms remain words on paper.”

The Deputy Majority Leader stated that without a strong, supported, and professional BHW system, the ambitious promise of UHC cannot possibly be delivered, leaving the nation's most vulnerable populations exposed to its deadliest diseases.