MANILA, Philippines?Forget about the rich.

This was Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral?s succinct advice to the Philippines? next president insofar as health care was concerned.

?The rich can afford health care even without the help of government. It is the poor who have to be served by the government first of all,? Cabral said at a press conference that followed a presidential forum on health issues sponsored by the Philippine College of Physicians at the Medical City in Pasig City on Tuesday night.

Cabral said the country?s next president must push for universal health care and concentrate on the poorest regions where people have no access to hospitals and clinics.

?My advice to the next president as far as health is concerned is that he will have to deal with the disparities in the health system. He will have to look at the inequities. Forget about the rich,? she said.

Cabral noted that in terms of budget allocations, health care was not among the government?s top priorities.

?On a scale of 1 to 10, it?s probably just 1. Health gets 2 percent of the national budget and 3 percent of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) but that happens because more than 50 percent of spending on health comes from the private sector.?

Only former Defense Secretary Gilbert ?Gibo? Teodoro and Sen. Richard Gordon attended the forum out of the four candidates invited by the Philippine College of Physicians.

Former Health Secretary Alberto Romualdez said he thought Teodoro performed a little better than Gordon.

?I think both candidates get 5 points apiece just for being here. So on a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate Gibo as maybe an 8, and Gordon, a 6 or 7,? he said.

?My impression was that Gibo was very well briefed. I think he had a lot of facts and a lot of ideas straight. I think Senator Gordon was basically piloting by the seat of his pants. I don?t think he had complete information,? Romualdez said.

?I don?t think he would have said all those things about reproductive health if he had known at the back of his head the figure of fertility rates in this country,? he said, referring to Gordon?s statement conveying his reluctance to spend on reproductive health.

Medical City president and chief executive officer Alfredo Bengzon was more diplomatic, saying he thought the two both acquitted themselves well.

Bengzon praised Teodoro for recognizing the need to address the problems of the health sector in a systemic rather than symptomatic manner.

?If you want to move forward with health, you have to have the knowledge, the skills, the disposition, the orientation, and the sanity to balance the interests of government and those of other vested interests,? Bengzon said.