THE festering issue of the JR Borja General Hospital remains unresolved, like dirty laundry twisting in the wind.

City Hall and its apologists never tire of claiming that this facility is meant to serve the needs of the “poorest among the poor” -- as if that makes it ipso facto what they claim it is. Yet hardly a week passes that some lack of something manages to insult poor and rich alike.

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If they’re serious about serving the poor, this facility should have the most basic services and supplies needed. At all times and in sufficient quantity. The poor deserves it.

Because they are poor, any time lost when they need attention and any service or supply denied is unacceptable. They must receive the very highest priority. It is hypocritical to invoke Magsaysay’s credo that “they who have less in life should have more in law.”

Legalism and technicality is hogwash where it merely drives the poor deeper into the morass of misery and privation.

Unlike the rich and powerful, they cannot go for a second opinion or for alternative service in an alternative institution when public services fail them. Inefficiency or neglect in this hospital is catastrophic and fatal to them.

Complaints about medicines out of stock, or cotton and cotton buds are a shame. Unbecoming of a medical facility of a so-called first-class city.

Does it sometimes happen that a staffer must dip into his or her pocket to enable a patient to buy prescribed medication? The mere thought of it should mortify the mayor and his entire administration.

There’s the persistent problem of high turnover of doctors. A hemorrhage of hospital personnel? That’s really serious. It raises the issue of competence, good governance, and a sense of priority.

But instead of confronting it head-on, what does the mayor do? He hosts a press conference where he trots out figures that don’t jibe with reality. One hundred million has been allocated for the hospital, he says. So how there’s so much grumbling?

He gives lawyerly explanations. Then he accuses critics of speaking out of turn or “out of ignorance” and leaves it at that.

You’d think he’ll at least go there and check matters on-site, then hold a press conference right there where words can readily parallel existential reality. Or he could send his vice mayor and have him report on the ground situation – not to the media but to him.

It’s questionable, of course, whether the vice mayor would do his bidding. But nevertheless, on-site is where the problem is. It’s where the poor and the sick agonize from lack of attention, their illness untended, their dignity violated.

On-site is where the first option on spending our taxes ought to be. Multi-million projects like B.O.T. contracts or monuments to flatter egos while fattening campaign chests are not options.

Mr. Mayor and Mr. Vice Mayor: on-site is where to fix the problem, not on-air or on front pages.

Or try city council sessions.