Davide wants to head health committee in PB

CEBU, Philippines — If given a chance to choose a committee to head, outgoing governor and vice governor-elect Hilario Davide III would pick the Committee on Health of the Provincial Board (PB).

Davide, who will act as the board’s presiding officer, told reporters Thursday that he wants to have policies concerning hospitalization and health care services.

“If I had my way, I choose to be with the Committee on Health. I will focus on hospitals and healthcare,” he said.

He, however, clarified that the chairmanship and membership is decided upon by the legislative body, wherein majority of the members are allied with his opponent and successor, governor-elect Gwendolyn Garcia.

“There are rules on the selection of committees… We still have to discuss that. There might be other members who are interested to head the (health) committee,” he said.

Moreover, the incoming vice governor said he is yet to look into which policies and measures he will be pushing for to form part of his legislative agenda by consulting first his colleagues in the PB.

He said by June 10, he will be sitting down with the newly-elected Provincial Board members to discuss some important matters.

“On the legislative agenda, I have not yet studied that. I will have my own. Whether what ordinances, I will have to study that. We already have many ordinances. I will have team to review all the ordinances,” he said.

But Davide said the very first thing to do during the June 10 meeting is to review the rules on procedures – a standard protocol every new term – whether there had been changes or amendments implemented.

These rules will then be adopted by the new set of members in the next three years.

The last PB session is set on June 24, which also coincides with the ceremonial turnover of outgoing vice governor Agnes Magpale to Davide.

Davide was Magpale’s running mate but she lost to Garcia in the May 13 elections.

July 1, on the other hand, is the scheduled inaugural session of the newly-elected PB members. — MBG (FREEMAN)