OFW families’ health insurance for P900 only per year

By Jennifer Catan-Tilos

            DUMAGUETE CITY Feb 25 (PIA)   The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) has called on Overseas Filipinos Workers (OFWs) in Negros Oriental to regularly renew their enrollment to provide continues medical benefits to their families.

            Such benefits include inpatient coverage such as subsidy for room and board, drugs and medicine, laboratories, operation room and professional fees for confinement of not less than 24 hours, and outpatient coverage like day surgeries, dialysis, and cancer treatment procedures in accredited hospitals and free-standing clinics.

            In a Kapihan forum, PhilHealth Officer-in-Charge Marites Que said the annual premium for health insurance remains at P900 for OFWs.

            The amount may be paid at any of PhilHealth's accredited collecting partners or at the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) office before they leave for abroad.

            Que said OFWs who eventually return to the country for good may continue their membership as Individually Paying Members.

            When they reach the age of 60 and have made at least 120 monthly contributions to PhilHealth, they may enjoy lifetime coverage without having to pay any additional premium, she added.

            However, to continuously avail of the benefits, aside from paying the annual paying premiums, the OFWs are also required to present the following documents: valid passport, working permit/visa, exit and re-entry visa; and overseas employment certificate, or employment contract.

            The same documents also apply to new registrants to the Overseas Workers Program which are to be attached to the M1b form for membership registration.  

            This month of February, the PhilHealth, the government agency mandated to provide social health insurance coverage to Filipinos, celebrates its 16th Anniversary with the theme “PhilHealth: Tapat na Serbisyo, Sapat na Benepisyo, Lahat Panalo.” The celebration falls within the observance of National Health Insurance Month. (PIA/JCT)

Mayor seeks national government help in establishing sanitary landfill 

by: Rachelle M. Nessia 

 

DUMAGUETE CITY, Feb. 25 (PIA) --- A local chief executive here is asking the national government to extend financial assistance to local government units (LGUs) in putting up sanitary landfill in their areas as mandated by Republic Act No. 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

 

Valencia Mayor Enrique Gonzalez is seeking the national government's help in response to a move from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to run after LGUs who failed to comply with RA 9003 which requires the establishment of sanitary landfills in all LGUs nationwide.

 

“If they want us to construct the sanitary landfill, they should also give us the money to do that. To have a landfill, you have to spend millions of pesos and we don't have that much,” said Gonzalez.

 

Putting up a sanitary landfill will cost an LGU roughly P15 million, according to Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Oscar Magallones who also said that budgetary constraints is the top reason why LGUs fail to phase out their open or controlled dumpsite in favor of a sanitary landfill.

 

Valencia, which is one of the majority of LGUs in the province who are still using either open or controll dumpsites, has turned its controlled dumpsite situated in Brgy. Bong-ao into an income-generating activity for the local government. 

 

“At our dumpsite, we segregate the bio-degradable from the non-biodegradable wastes. With the use of a shredder we are able to produce ropes and placemats from wastes like plastic. This is more practical for us than a sanitary landfill,” Gonzalez explained.

 

The LGU hired 30 persons and trained them to segregate the waste at the dumpsite, some of which are also decomposed to produce fertilizers for the town farmers. 

 

Nearly 95% of Valencia's garbage is biodegradable based on results of a waste composition study earlier conducted by the DENR here.

 

DENR Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje has earlier announced that the department will go after LGUs who refuse to comply with RA 9003, saying that “one decade is too long a grace period for LGUs to implement the provisions of the law.”

 

Paje said that DENR is bent on intensifying its drive to enhance compliance of LGUs, especially those that are still operating open and controlled dumpsites. (RMN/PIA-7 Negros Oriental)

AFP turns over keys of new homes to 70 soldiers in Negros Oriental

by: Rachelle M. Nessia with reports from Jennifer C. Tilos

DUMAGUETE CITY, Feb. 25 (PIA) -- Some 70 soldiers are now proud home owners after the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the province turned over the keys to their new houses yesterday at Camp Leon Kilat, Tanjay City.

The keys, along with certificates of ownership, were awarded to the soldiers under AFP's “Kalinga sa Kawal Housing Project” (KKHP).

The housing units are erected on a 7,500 sq. m. lot within Camp Leon Kilat situated in Brgy. Sta. Cruz Viejo in Tanjay City, which is one of 16 such housing sites for soldiers nationwide.

According to Maj. Sonny Gonzalez, public information officer of the 302nd Infantry Brigade based in Tanjay City, each housing unit costs P65,000 of which the Armed Forces and Police Savings and Loan Association, Inc. (AFPSLAI) will subsidize P25,000.

“The remaining P40,000 will either be directly paid by the soldier or can be availed through a loan,” he said.

The housing project ws conceived by the Department of National Defense (DND) after it inked a memorandum of agreement with Gawad Kalinga and AFPSLAI on July 16, 2005 as part of the department's corporate social responsibility.

Col. Manuel Luis Ochotorena, commander of the 302nd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Army (PA), said the project aims to provide a better quality of life, comfort and security to PA personnel and their families. (RMN/JCT/PIA-7 Negros Oriental)