Orly seeks better deal for barangay health workers

Former Defense Secretary Orlando Mercado wants a fuller implementation of the welfare law for barangay health workers (BHW’s) not only to boost their morale and help their families but also strengthen the delivery of health services to the rural areas.

Mercado, who authored the Magna Carta for Barangay Health Workers, pointed out that with the devolution of basic health services to local government units (LGUs), the frontline role of BHW’s should be given more support by the government.

The independent senatorial candidate, who served two back-to-back terms from 1987 to 1998, emphasized this need over the weekend by going on a Negros-wide caravan to visit various health clinics where he brought milk packages for distribution by barangay health workers to nursing mothers and malnourished toddlers.

Mercado stressed that under the law, LGU’s are mandated to give barangay health workers a monthly allowance of least 100 pesos, apart from medical benefits, food subsidy, and sholarships for their school-age children.

"Sadly," Mercado lamented, "some LGU’s not only fail to meet these simple obligations but there are politicians who make life even harder for barangay health workers by involving them in partisan political activities."

The former defense chief paid tribute to BHW’s whom he called the "genuine foot soldiers of the country’s public primary health care delivery system to whom we owe the medical well-being of the Filipino masses."

Mercado said he intends to not only review implementation of the Magna Carta for Barangay Health Workers but also increase the benefits, including the possibility of providing funds to start a penson fund for BHW’s.