BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved on first reading a proposed ordinance providing for free medical services and medicines for indigents residents in the city.
The ordinance, authored by Councilor Leandro B. Yangot, Jr., stated the program shall only be available to paupers of the city and that the patient availing of the said privilege should be a bonafide resident of the city.
Under the proposed ordinance, a pauper refers to any person or family who has no means at all of even supporting himself or themselves or those who have no means of livelihood or any person or family who is so poor that he or they must be supported at public expense and any person or family who has no property or income sufficient for their support aside from their labor.
Yangot claimed any person can avail of the services of the program upon the approval of the City Mayor or his duly authorized representative via certification and recommendation from the Office of the City Social Welfare and Development which shall determine the financial status and condition of the prospective beneficiary and his or her family.
The City Social Welfare and Development Office and City Health Services Office, in coordination with medical service providers, shall be responsible for providing treatment or medication to indigent patients and the city government, through the City Mayor, may enter into a contract with medical service providers operating in the city to perform the said services.
Further, the local government shall provide for a limited financial assistance in the amount of P5,000 only and the book of registry and medical certificate shall be kept and encoded, among others, the name of the patient, personal data, clinical abstract, certificate of no land holding from the City Assessor’s Office, recommendation and certification of the City Social Welfare and Development Office that the prospective beneficiary and his or her family is indigent as defined in the measure, and the approval of the City Mayor through his duly authorized representative.
The book of registry or medical certificate shall be considered as a public and official document and the office of the Local Civil Registrar shall be responsible for the maintenance and safekeeping of said registry or medical certificates and shall cause the availability and production of copies of said document upon formal written request.
Yangot explained the City Social Welfare and Development Office, in coordination with the City Health Services Office, will be authorized to promulgate the rules and regulations necessary to implement and achieve the purpose of the ordinance.
He underscored the right to free medical services or easy access to medicines is a basic right that should be accorded to the poorest of the poor, thus, the enactment of the proposed local legislative measure will definitely address the said right that should be availed by indigent local residents.
Section 9, Article 2 of the 1987 Constitution provides that the State shall promote a just and dynamic social order that will ensure that prosperity and independence of the national and free the people from poverty through policies that provide adequate social services, promote full employment, raising the standards of living and an improved quality of life for all.
By Dexter A. See
