Relevant and concrete measures

If you find today’s news about the government’s pandemic response quite exhausting, you’re not alone. Since last year, I ceased listening to the president’s weekly tantrums. Now his subordinates who harbor ambitions for higher office are having their own attention-grabbing moments.

I won’t name names because naming them would just help push their political ambitions. May I segue, instead, to topics that bring us back into focus.

I received the other day a press release from the office of House Assistant Majority Leader and Cebu 1st District Rep. Eduardo Gullas. It was about the four Department of Health (DOH)-run hospitals in Cebu which will get an aggregate of ?3.02 billion in new appropriations under the proposed ?5.024 trillion General Appropriations Act of 2022, to sustain their operations next year, plus ?335 million to further expand and upgrade their facilities.

These hospitals are Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in Cebu City, Cebu South Medical Center in Talisay City, St. Anthony Mother and Child Hospital in Cebu City, and Eversley Childs Sanitarium and General Hospital in Mandaue City. According to the press statement from Rep. Gullas, the combined new funding for the operations of the four hospitals in 2022 is 11% higher than the ?2.71 billion that these hospitals are getting this year.

By the way, I’ve heard a lot of good reviews about the services of VSMMC even way back to the time before the pandemic. These hospitals certainly deserve more funds to be able to serve more people.

Another relevant and concrete measure at the local level that’s worth mentioning is the Cebu City ordinance that institutionalizes the assistance that the city can offer to Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs). Authored by Councilor Alvin Dizon and approved the City Council two weeks ago, the ordinance aims to provide coordinated quality services for OFWs.

Councilor Dizon kept in touch with me during the drafting of this ordinance. Last February, we virtually met, together with other government and civil society participants, during a three-day webinar on the plight of women migrant workers amid the pandemic. The webinar was organized by the Spotlight Initiative, a global, multi-year partnership between the European Union and the United Nations to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls by 2030.

I know Dizon to be a public official who wants to produce a concrete output from any substantial input. So it didn’t come as surprise when he told me he was proposing an ordinance that would help OFWs, especially women migrant workers, in this time of crisis.

The ordinance creates an OFW Help Desk and Coordinating Body through the Department of Social Welfare and Services and the Department of Manpower Development and Placement. These offices are tasked, among others, to establish clear referral procedures with the national government agencies like the DFA, DOLE, POEA and OWWA.

It makes a difference to an OFW from Cebu City if she knows that there is an OFW Help Desk in her own city that can assist her. It’s easy to get lost in a maze of circulars and orders issued by national agencies concerning OFWs, so a timely assistance from the city OFW Help Desk can come in handy. A yearly amount of ?5 million is likewise allotted for the OFWs’ support fund for programs and services intended for the sector.

Another relevant feature of the ordinance is that it mandates setting up an electronic database of information about OFWs residing in Cebu City. The data can be used as basis to support the continuous improvement of services and programs for OFWs.