Minda Luz Quesada started out as staff nurse at the Abellanosa Medical Clinic in Iligan City in 1958, then a clinic nurse at De Ocampo Eye Clinic in Manila in 1959, a public health nurse at the Philippine Normal College in Manila from 1961 to 1969, and from 1975 until her death, a faculty member of the University of the Philippines’ College of Public Health.
She had a heart for the poor and the struggling. Her daughter Dessa Palm described her mother as “the quintessential helper.” One of the daughter’s early memories was how her mother took in a young beggar into their house, fed and had him bathed, and then gave him small chores in exchange for the money she gave him. This allowed the boy dignity, the daughter said, and gave him hope it was possible to work productively. Even in the late 1960s, the daughter remembered, Minda opened the family house to health workers on a strike at a small hospital nearby. They cooked their meals in the Quesada yard and used their bathroom, between taking their turn at the picket lines. Dessa Palm was also roped in to help a health program her mother started at Tatalon, a massive urban poor area in Quezon City. Prof. Quesada gave her daughter the job of telling stories to the children about the need to brush their teeth, wash their hands properly and use slippers (or else suffer bad teeth and disgusting tapeworms.)
Prof. Quesada instilled in her children love for country and critical thinking, having them watch films about Bonifacio or the classic “Sakada.” She did not talk to them much about politics or her activist involvement. But Dessa Palm remembered playing nearby while her parents engaged in serious political discussions with friends, and her mother meeting with strangers in groceries curiously to exchange documents. The family home was tense when martial law was declared in 1972.
One of Prof. Quesada’s early organizing efforts was with the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA). She began to conduct seminars for nurses on labor education and political awareness. She became convinced that nurses and health workers needed to strengthen their bargaining power. This was a difficult as well as a dangerous project, because the country was under martial law. But Prof. Quesada soldiered on.
In 1979, she represented the labor sector as PNA vice president in a national tripartite conference, where she helped craft a position paper for nurses and other health workers. She also headed a PNA outreach committee that launched community projects providing training in communities on health-related issues. She was also founding member of the Council for Primary Health Care, coordinating the many initiatives for community-based health programs.
Prof. Quesada joined the parliament of the streets, often a low-key participant, but also many times as a speaker when concerns about health workers were raised. A friend, UP professor Michael Tan, remembered Prof. Quesada befriending police in rallies to win them over, and visiting jails when some health workers were arrested while in these protest activities.
As the Marcos repression intensified in the early 1980s, Prof. Quesada met with several doctors to discuss possible means of providing the medical needs of community workers being arrested, tortured and detained. This led to the establishment of the Medical Action Group (MAG).
After Senator Ninoy Aquino was killed in 1983, the health sector saw a rise in organizations denouncing the repressive policies of the Marcos government. UERMMMC had MEDICINE, Capitol Medical Center had SCALPEL and UST had SPIT (Society of Physicians for Integrity and Truth). Working with Dr. Romeo Quijano, Prof. Quesada organized around the Health Sciences Complex of UP Manila. They called for protest actions under the banner of UP-PGH LUNAS. This then led to the formation of the Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD). Prof. Quesada was one of its founding members, often seen leading delegations from UP Manila in the protest actions and rallies called to advocate for the return of democracy in the country. Prof. Quesada also became part of the Justice for Aquino, Justice for All Health Action Committee (or JAJA HAC).
In 1983, the militant group Alliance of Health Workers (AHW) was established, with Prof. Quesada as founding president. With the AHW, her advocacy for health workers’ efforts to organize and build their collective strength was further realized. Remedios Ysmael, a hospital worker in a government hospital in Tondo, cites Prof. Quesada’s support and influence in her growth as a person, a union leader, and as a health worker. She remembered these words from the professor: “We fight not only for ourselves, but for all health workers, and for all the people especially the poor patients. They have nowhere to go but the public hospitals. We fight for them.”
All this time, Prof. Quesada was parent to six growing adult children, who were also finding themselves involved in the struggle against the dictatorship. Daughter Mae Medina said that she and her two sisters would sometimes come across their mother in protest rallies. At one such activity, protesting a rise in oil prices in Makati, anti-riot police barged on and dispersed the protesters. As protesters ran in various directions, daughter Mae stumbled and was apprehended and taken inside a police van. As soon as the streets cleared, Prof. Quesada, who had run too and found herself inside a shop, went looking for her daughters and saw one in the police van. She went and pleaded and explained. “The protest was peaceful,” she told the police. If oil prices rose, it would affect everyone, including the policemen and their families, she said. Daughter Mae remembers how respectfully but persistently she argued that the chief of police finally decided to release everyone in the van. To which Prof. Quesada shouted, “Mabuhay ang makabayang pulis!”
After the dictatorship fell in 1986, Prof. Quesada became a member of the Constitutional Commission, chosen to represent the health sector in drafting the 1987 Constitution. This was a recognition of her leadership during the Marcos period, which allowed her to mobilize from the health community in the dark and risky struggle of fighting for democracy. She was one of only six women in the Commission, co-authoring several reform provisions and fighting for her positions so fiercely, she gained the name “Gabriela of the ConCom.”
She went on to serve in various government health committees. She continued to pursue the passage of a law for public health workers, the Philippine Magna Carta for Public Health Workers, regarded the first of its kind in the world. Believing in health as a human right, Prof. Quesada was participant in the drafting of a Manifesto for People’s Health, now a standard reference on the establishment of a national health care system. She received many awards, including Most Outstanding Alumna of UP in 1993.
Prof. Quesada died in 1995 from complications of colon cancer.
