Philhealth Regional Vice President Orlando Iňigo commended City Mayor Krisel Lagman-Luistro for being “technocratic” in her approach in leading her people to move the City of Tabaco forward.
RVP Iňigo expressed his gratefulness at the City Mayor’s openness to progressive ideas in the field of health care, which has greatly assisted the promotion of Philhealth in the city. He expressed his appreciation before the hundreds of local government personnel of Tabaco during the flag raising ceremony on Monday, 18 March 2013 at the City Terrace.
According to RVP Iňigo, Mayor Luistro was among the very few selected lawmakers who responded to their call for Philhealth sponsorship in 2000. And thankfully until now, as the Tabaco City Mayor, has remained one of the major supporters in pushing for their initiatives to cover all the marginalized members of our society to good health.
RVP Iňigo added that DOH Secretary Enrique Ona assured that by 2015 the national government can already cover the entire indigents of the country so that the local governments may focus on the improvement of the health facilities. This is in conjunction with the passage of Sin Tax Bill, where the collections will go straight to the financing of Philhealth beneficiaries.
Mayor Krisel Lagman-Luistro highlighted that Tabaco City has three lying-in clinics situated in the key areas of Tabaco — upland, island and poblacion. Another lying-in clinic is soon to be developed in place of the Puericulture Center, which is said to be a mother and child clinic and, thus will now cover all the four quadrants of the city.
She stressed that the RH law is focused on the accessibility of birthing facilities, which are already present in the barangays of Bacolod and Panal and will soon provide better services accredited by the DOH and Philhealth. Other barangays will also follow suit.
RVP Iňigo concluded his talk by sharing the new slogan of Philhealth which says, “Bawat Pilipino, Miyembro! Bawat Miyembro, Protektado. Kalusugan Natin, Segurado.”
Earlier this month, Philhealth Express was opened in the LCC Mall Tabaco, which made the Philhealth services more accessible to the residents of Tabaco and the nearby municipalities.
