The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has gone a long way in administering the National Health Insurance Program (NHIP). It has expanded its benefit packages enormously to cover all Filipinos from all walks of life. Its dream of effectively implementing a responsive social health insurance program in the country is now being realized. PhilHealth members and their qualified dependents now enjoy hassle-free availment of benefits because of the innovations set forth by this premiere health insurer.

Committed to its objective of providing the best public service that should be accorded to all its clients, the PhilHealth Regional Office – Cordillera Administrative Region (PRO-CAR), through its Local Health Insurance Offices (LHIOs) and PhilHealth Business Centers (PBCs), sends its staff members to travel to far-flung areas within the Region to bring the NHIP right at every client’s doorstep. They cross several rivers and trek for hours in treacherous tracks where the slightest uncalculated step could result to a fall into the deepest ravines. Trainings in cliff hanging and rappelling could come in handy during these hikes.

The ten-hour trip from Baguio City to the Province of Kalinga was quite an experience for me. The literally long and winding road carved at the edges of the mountain gave me a glimpse of the natural grandeur of the Cordilleras, but it also yielded the strongest palpitations because of the narrow lanes that all land transports must pass through to be able to get there.

Upon reaching the municipality of Tinglayan, we hiked for almost two hours from the main road up to Barangay Buscalan, a quaint village atop the mountain. While it is not the usual go-to destination for tourists because of its geographical location, the “Tattoo Village,” is where the famous Whang-od lives. The trek was exhausting for someone who is not fond of the outdoors like me, but seeing Whang-od all-smiles took away all the fatigue and stress I went through just to meet and chat with her.

Whang-od, the famed 99-year-old mambabatok (traditional tattoo artist) of Buscalan, was prepping for the long queue of local and foreign tourists who trekked the same way as we did in order to have their share of the rich culture of customary tribal tattooing. Clad in modern-day pants and tees and combing her long grey hair, she readily agreed to a brief interview with us before she attended to her “clients.” I could not speak in her dialect but she understood a little bit of the Ilocano dialect and the English language. Luckily, I had help from our Kalinga LHIO staff who served as my interpreters during that fleeting moment.

Catching my breath from the gruelling hike, I had to ask her how many times has she been to the main thoroughfares of Tinglayan and within the Province of Kalinga. Whang-od said she goes down the mountain whenever there are town fiestas or provincial celebrations. When asked how often she stops and rests during the hike, she enthusiastically said “only once.” Physically she looks old, yet she still has the strength and potency of a thirty-something.

The toothless Whang-od recounts that when she was 15 years old, she watched how an older male mambabatok tattooed prints on her and she mimicked it when she tattooed on her sister. Since then, she perfected her craft. Out of curiosity, I asked if there were female tattoo artists back then and Whang-od told us that when she was young, the only traditional tattoo artists in her tribe were men. However, when the last male mambabatok died, she was the only one left. Today, no males from the village want to follow in her footsteps. Whang-od narrates that since she has no family of her own (yes, she is single), she passed on the knowledge of traditional tattoo art to her niece, Grace and granddaughter, Eliang. Since Buscalan is a conservative village, males are too timid to give in to the requests of tourists to be tattooed on some sensitive areas of their bodies. Hence, only female mambabatoks exist in Buscalan.

I went on to ask if she had experiences of getting sick that required hospitalization. She admitted that once in her heyday, she had this excruciating pain in the stomach that led her to see the doctor. She was not admitted in the hospital and was only advised not to skip meals and to eat a complete full meal. After that incident, she has never been sick at all. “What is your secret to being so vigorous?” I asked. Whang-od said, chuckling, “I just eat home-grown vegetables and a little of that (pointing to a wild hog that roams around the village like a stray dog)”.

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I asked if I could take a few snapshots of her to document the journey and she willingly adhered. As the interview closed, Whang-od asked what PhilHealth was and we gave her an on-the-spot information drive on the NHIP. We informed her that she is now a duly registered PhilHealth member under the Senior Citizens category and personally handed her her Member Data Record (MDR). As we read to her the details on the MDR for confirmation, she immediately requested that her date of birth and middle name be amended as the information given to us was incorrect. We assured her that her updated MDR will be given as soon as the necessary changes were effected. “That would be best for you to be able to visit me again and tell me more of what PhilHealth can bring us,” Whang-od said in reply.

Walking down the mountain was much harder, since the pavements and stairs have no railings to hold on to. With much resolve, one must balance the body well enough to put pressure on the toes to make it through the deep inclines. Looking at the “tattoo village” from afar, I remember the smiling Whang-od who was generous enough to sit with us to relate her life experiences. Indeed, PhilHealth knows no boundaries in the fulfilment of its mandate of universal health coverage. PRO-CAR’s mantra that no one should be left behind in terms of administering the NHIP within the Region inspired my journey to Buscalan. Indeed, even the most remote areas in the Cordilleras deserve our utmost public service.END (Lala Manzano, PRO-CAR)