BAGUIO CITY – Two local legislators recently filed a proposed ordinance appropriating the amount of P1 million from the annual budget of the local government for the purchase of health apparatus and kits for all health volunteers in the city.
The ordinance authored by Councilors Leandro B. Yangot, Jr. and Levy Lloyd Orcales stated that the City Health Services Office will be tasked to formulate the guidelines necessary for the successful implementation of the proposed local legislative measure.
The proponents stipulated that the health volunteers of the local government, particularly the barangay health workers, barangay nutrition scholars and barangay nutrition actions officers, are always at the forefront in the delivery of basic health services in the grassroots level amidst being exposed to the elements and the danger of acquiring illnesses that could compromise their health condition.
Despite their reported perseverance to help deliver quality health services to the people, the ordinance claimed that they are allegedly burdened by the lack of appropriate health apparatus and kits for them to be able to effectively and efficiently perform their assigned duties and responsibilities.
According to the proponents, their proposal seeks to eventually address the concern with the ultimate goal of further levelling up the quality of health services in the city.
The proponents argued that the local government is obliged to provide quality health services to the people in the barangays, thus, it was able to tap the services of barangay health workers, barangay nutrition scholars and barangay nutrition action officers to be its partners in ensuring that such basic health services will be cascaded to the grassroots level.
They added that the said health volunteers sacrifice their time, effort and even resources without sufficient benefits from the local government, except for meagre honoraria, and health kits that will help them in preventing acquiring illnesses that will compromise their health condition and affect their performance in delivering quality health services to the people in the different barangays of the city.
While it is true that the barangays and the local government provide the health volunteers with honoraria, the proponents stated that one of the important aspects of their job that is lacking to date is their health kits that they could use to prevent them from acquiring illnesses in the performance of their assigned duties and responsibilities, thus, they were compelled to file the proposal that will be beneficial to the said volunteers.
For the past several years, the health volunteers had been clamouring for additional subsidy and benefits from the local government but the inadequate funds served as a major constraint in the grant of the requested benefits to date.
The proposed ordinance was calendared for first reading last Monday but the same was not discussed due to the lack of quorum by the city’s local legislative body.
Health volunteers remain optimistic that the proposed ordinance will be passed by the next batch of local legislators who will be comprising the local legislative body.
By Dexter A. See