Governor says Palawan ready to receive tourists with health-care system in place
AMID the continuing threat of the dreaded Covid-19, outgoing Palawan Governor Jose Chaves Alvarez has assured the public that the province has an adequate health-care system in place both for local residents and tourists.
A known tourism destination in Luzon, Palawan is eyeing the influx of more tourists as the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases revealed plans to put more areas in the country under a more relaxed community restriction.
Alvarez, chairman of the Palawan Council for Sustainable Development (PCSD), a unit under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, is serving his third and final term as governor. He is now gunning for a seat as a member of the House of Representatives representing the Second District of Palawan.
Alvarez has caused the construction of a total of 16 hospitals, not only for pal aweñ os, but to make tourists feel safe and comfortable, and confident during their stay in the island paradise.
The hospitals include the Quezon Medicare Hospital in Quezon town, the Araceli-dumaran District Hospital, Cuyo District Hospital, New Northern Palawan Provincial Hospital (NPPH) in Taytay and the Balabac District Hospital. In southern Palawan, the hospitals are the Aborlan Medicare Hospital, Narra Municipal Hospital, Dr. Jose Rizal District Hospital, Southern Palawan Provincial Hospital (SPPH) in Brooke’s Point, Bataraza District Hospital, Quezon Medicare Hospital, Sofronio Española District Hospital, and Balabac District Hospital.
The Northern hospitals include the Roxas Medicare Hospital, Coron District Hospital, San Vicente District Hospital, el ni do community hospital, Northern Palawan District Hospital in Taytay, araceli-d um ar an district hospital, and Cuyo District Hospital.
To make up for the lack of doctors in the province, the provincial government sponsored scholarships for its citizens’ medical education.
Every year the program produces 10 doctors. Each scholar who passed the licensure examination for physicians has to render services equivalent to the number of years the provincial government paid for their medical schooling.
The new doctor-scholars, meanwhile, are paid competitive salaries. Department of Health (DOH) Assistant Secretary Maria Francia Laxamana, cited Palawan as a model for health-care response.
“We do not just see the beautiful ecology and environment of the province, but also Palawan’s fast improvements in its economy, health, education, its wonderful transformation in terms of human resource management, particularly its new doctors and health-care providers,” she said.