PhilHealth to insure over 47T PUV drivers

Some 47,348 public utility vehicle drivers in Central Visayas will soon be covered with PhilHealth insurance, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board-7 recently announced.

LTFRB-7 director Rogelio Osmeña said the LTFRB national office recently endorsed PhilHealth the coverage of all public utility vehicle drivers in the country, totaling to nearly 900,000.

According to Osmeña, the proposed PhilHealth coverage costs P50/driver, with a P50/driver counterpart from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office.

Earlier, in a press release, LTFRB chairman Thompson Lantion said his office and the PCSO will soon enter into a joint undertaking to help fund the PhilHealth coverage of PUV drivers.

Lantion said that the PUV drivers have always been the government's partners in providing transportation service to the public "so they deserve to have health coverage at very affordable cost."

Osmeña, on the other hand said, he is waiting for instructions from the LTFRB main office over the program and that PhilHealth coverage for the drivers is a very laudable move and a welcome development from the government.

Thompson said that as partners of government in providing public service and convenience, public utility drivers deserve priority in grants for health provisions and this is in accordance with Section II, Article XIII of the Philippine Constitution which mandated the state to "adopt an integrated and comprehensive approach to health development which shall endeavor to make essential goods, health and other social services available to all people at affordable cost."

The LTFRB chairman believes that having healthy drivers of public utility vehicles like those of the jeepneys, the passengers as well as the pedestrians are assured of safe travel and protection wherein the general welfare of the people will thus be served. - Wenna A. Berondo/MEEV