‘WHO HANDS FREE MEDS?

Councilor Garganera, during budget hearing, wants clarification on free meds distribution protocol

Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera wants the executive department to clarify who are the people involved in the distribution of free maintenance medicines under the long-life program of the city.

During the second day of the budget hearing for the proposed first supplemental budget (SB 1) yesterday, Garganera questioned why there are barangay health workers (BHW) appointed by the executive department who are doing the distribution of the free medicines.

“In Barangay Tinago, the BHWs are distributing the medicines,” he said.

The set-up is also observed in several villages whose barangay captains are not allies with May- or Tomas Osmeña, Garganera said.

Francisco “Bimbo” Fernandez explained during the budget hearing that the program employs outof-school youth tasked to distribute the maintenance medicines to indigent residents of the city with chronic illnesses.

He said they’re being paid P100 per day or P2 per delivery of medicine to one patient.

Fernandez said the City is only spending P6 for each of the medicines.

In response to the claims of Garganera, Fernandez said they’re willing to submit the names of those out of school youth who are employed under the program.

Under SB 1, the Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) is proposing P14 million budget for the medicines for the long life program.

The amount forms part of the P69.1 million that the DSWS pro- posed under the additional budget of the city.

The bulk of the budget proposal of the DSWS goes to the City Hospitalization and Medicine Program (Champ), which has a P50-million allocation.

Amor Villanueva, head of Champ, said they have P71-million approved budget under the annual budget this year.

However, as of June, they were already able to use P54 million of it and served 6,007 patients.

On an average, each patient can claim up to P30,000 medical assistance from the City.

Aside from the DSWS, the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) and the City Health Department (CHD) also defended their budget proposal yesterday.

CCMC is pushing for an additional budget of some P63.1 million under SB 1, which will be mostly used in the purchase of drugs and medicines, x-ray films, fixer and developer, fluids, gases and other hospital supplies.

On the other hand, the CHD has proposed around P4.6 million additional budget.

Under SB 1, the executive department has pushed for an additional budget of P716.5 million, which will cover the City’s expenses in basic services and other operations.