NEDA-7 ARD briefs IOs on P-Noy’s social contract with Filipinos
By: Hazel F. Gloria
Cebu City , April 11 (PIA)—National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) 7 assistant regional director Efren Carreon briefed members of the Association of Government Information Officers in Central Visayas (AGIO 7) on President Benigno S. Aquino III's Social Contract with the Filipino People during the association’s General Assembly held recently at NEDA Regional Office.
It was part of NEDA 7's advocacy on the 2011-2016 Central Visayas Regional Development Plan (CVRDP).
The contract contains its mission and vision of the President to the Filipino people and his 16 Transformational Leadership commitments that the Central Visayas Regional Development Council (RDC 7 approved on February 1, 2011.
P-Noy’s vision for the Philippines is a country with a re-awakened sense of right and wrong, through the living examples of our highest leaders.
An organized and widely-shared rapid expansion of our economy through a government dedicated to honing and mobilizing our people’s skills and energies as well as the responsible harnessing of our resources.
A collective belief that doing the right things does not only make sense morally, but translates into economic value as well and public institutions rebuilt on the strong solidarity of our society and its communities.
The mission stated as we will start to make these changes first in ourselves—by doing the right things, by giving value to excellence and integrity and rejecting mediocrity and dishonesty, and by giving priority to others over ourselves.
P-Noy’s transformational leadership commitments are to fight corruption; job and economic opportunities; education as central strategy; health as demonstration of good governance and equal justice for all.
For the economy, execution of laws as basis of economic growth, farms and rural enterprises vital to equitable economic growth, opportunity for the poor, conditions conducts for growth and competitiveness of private businesses, jobs at home and jobs abroad as a choice, not necessity.
The President also expressed his commitment to transform government service with Presidential appointees of integrity and competence, motivated bureaucracies with means to succeed.
For gender equality through equal gender opportunity while for peace and order situation, P-Noy broadly supported just peace in Mindanao .
For the environment, the government should encourage the people sustainable use of resources and the implementation of urban development.
Carreon explained during his presentation that government agency’s programs and projects for the next six years (2011-2016) should fit in to the social contract of the President.
In an interview with PIA, AGIO-7 President Ed Llamedo said the P-Noy’s social contract expresses a very strong and compelling message for a 180 degree turn which captures the essence of transparency and accountability.
“We need to rally behind the president as we try to uplift our country into becoming self-help and self-reliant,” Llamedo concluded.(PIA-7/HFG)
===========
PhilHealth, Cebu City partnership makes preventive care accessible to urban poor
Cebu City, April 12 (PIA) -- As the City Government of Cebu and PhilHealth Regio-7 inked a partnership of providing health insurance coverage to 30,000 urban poor in Cebu City.
The PhilHealth law gives incentives in the form of capitation to local government sponsors enrolling poor constituents under PhilHealth’s Sponsored Program.
In health insurance, capitation is a way of paying for specific health care services based on the number of patients covered over a specified period of time.
PhilHealth pays back to the sponsoring local government P300 per sponsored family so that it can provide PhilHealth’s outpatient primary consultation and diagnostic benefit package for free to sponsored members.
However, payment of capitation is subject to the prior accreditation of at least one of the local government’s health centers, or rural health unit as the case may be, which shall serve as provider of the benefit package.
Preventive care should be made more accessible to the poor. PhilHealth’s outpatient primary consultation and diagnostic package for sponsored members is designed for this very purpose.
It covers primary consultations with general physicians and laboratory fees for chest X-ray, complete blood count, fecalysis, urinalysis and sputum microscopy.
Cebu City’s urban poor will soon have access to preventive care through their respective health centers. The City will be working out the accreditation of, initially, one of its health centers as provider of the outpatient benefit package.
The City’s health centers, like rural health units, may also be accredited as lying-in clinics to provide PhilHealth’s maternity care package for the first four normal deliveries.
Once accredited, all members availing of prenatal, normal spontaneous delivery and postnatal services in the center can avail of P6,500 as health insurance coverage.
Cebu City has also expressed intent to secure accreditation of an initial 12 health centers as lying-in clinics.
Sponsored members, like all other PhilHealth members, and their qualified dependents may also avail themselves of PhilHealth benefits when confined for at least 24 hours in PhilHealth-accredited hospitals or admitted for outpatient procedures specifically covered by the insurance program.
Sponsored members can avail of PhilHealth benefits within the validity of the sponsorship indicated in their PhilHealth ID and member data record (MDR).
Under the Sponsored Program, a 50-50 premium sharing scheme is set between the national government through PhilHealth and a highly urbanized LGU sponsor like Cebu City.
At an insurance premium of only P600 per family for one-year coverage (the other P600 will be paid by the national government as counterpart), the sponsorship is indeed an investment in the health of Cebu City constituents.
“Health is wealth,” quoted Mayor Rama, adding that the health of the people should not be set aside and should be equally given attention.
PhilHealth VP William Chavez expressed appreciation of the City government’s decision to partner with PhilHealth in providing access to health care for the poor, in line with President Benigno S. Aquino III’s call for local government units to enroll constituents in PhilHealth. (PIA-7/Hazel F. Gloria with reports from PhilHealth-7)
============
OJ, concerned agencies must strengthen partnership in tax evasion cases
By: Minerva BC Newman
Manila, April 12 (PIA) -- To ensure the success of the government's campaign against taxevaders the Department of Justice (DOJ) and other concerned agencies such as the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) must strengthen partnerships to prioritize those tax evasion cases that have been filed and pending with the courts.
Senator Chiz Escudero commented that since the Aquino administration launched the campaign to run after tax cheats, there have been no indictments yet. According to escudero, there are 36 tax evasion cases filed at the DOJ to date.
The only way that tax evaders will see that the government is serious about this issue is when they see that cases are actually being filed in courts.
While the drive is most welcome to plug tax leaks and boost revenue collection, this must be done side by side with a serious partnership with the DOJ that has all the capability to seethese cases move forward.
Escudero then urged the BIR, BOC and the DOJ to strengthen their partnerships to effect real and actual tax collection, which could translate into better social services for the people. (PIA-7/MBCN with reports from the office of Senator Escudero)