Provl Govt.,Congressman Mercado Allocate P3.7M For Indigents' PHILHEALTH Cards

Feb. 24,2010
Provl Govt., Congressman Mercado Allocate P3.7M For
The Indigents’PhilHealth Cards
By Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.

Maasin City, Southern Leyte-The provincial government and Congressman Roger Mercado have allocated a total amount of P3.7M for PhilHealth cards to indigent beneficiaries in the entire province of Southern Leyte and one city.
This was the disclosure of Nelita Gonzales-Gomez, DSWD provincial office head and that of Aida Morsen, Secretary of the District Office of the Congressman, in an interview in their respective separate offices.
Gomez informed that the applicants for the indigency program in 18 municipalities and one city have been screened by the respective municipal DSWD office heads. The lists were then submitted to the DSWD provincial office for consideration.
The distribution of PhilHealtlh cards in every municipality spearheaded by Governor Damian Mercado, she said, were done with the assistance of DSWD personnel and the Chief Executive of every LGU province-wide. It was learned that a total of 10,175 qualified indigents who were on the lists were scheduled to receive their respective PhilHealth cards before the end of February.
Several weeks prior to the distribution of the aforesaid cards for the indigents, the DSWD provincial head said,DSWD personnel with the help of barangay officials have conducted information dissemination drive to different barangays in all the municipalities comprising the province of Southern Leyte.
Sometime in 2008, the idea of providing PhilHealth cards to indigents has cropped during discussions with the incumbent Governor together with the Vice-Governor Miguel Maamo,11 and some SP members.
The Governor then submitted a resolution to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan led by Presiding Officer Maamo during their session held at the newly-finished SP session hall located at the first floor of the newly-renovated provincial capitol building.
The Governor’s resolution has proposed a certain amount of budget for approval to the august body. After deliberations among the SP members, it was unanimously approved by everybody. At the time the needed funds were made available, the office of the Governor then contacted the PhilHealth office here about the plan. When the needed number of PhilHealth cards was completed, it was delivered to the provincial government thru the DSWD provincial office for its distribution.
The provincial DSWD head further revealed that the subsidizing of PhilHealth cards for the indigents by the provincial government thru the joint efforts of the Mercado brothers is now on its third year, which is annually renewable.
Moreover, it was learned that applicants for the PhilHealth cards indigency program are increasing every year, making it incumbent upon the provincial government and Congressman Mercado to likewise increase the funds for the project.
Unlike in the past distribution of PhilHealth cards for indigents, the recent one was done much earlier. “Atong guisayo ang pagpanghatag sa PhilHealth cards para sa mga indigents sa nagkalainlaing lungsod
sa probinsiya”, the Governor said in Cebuano,”kay kung adunay masakit karong bulana (February 2010), o kaha sunod bulan (Marso 2010) dili na problema ang pagpahospital kung guikinahanglan”.(We have distributed the PhilHealth cards for indigents to the different municipalities of the province much earlier so that if somebody would get sick during this month(February 2010) or in the following month, there would be no problem if a poor folk would need hospitalization.) (Quirico M. Gorpido,Jr.)