A project that benefits indigent patients

As previously noted, the reason why I attended the awarding ceremonies of the Western Visayas Regional Development Council’s (RDC) Excellence in Governance last week was because it provided me insights into government programs that help improve the lot of the common tao.

As pledged, I am writing today about the Capiz Province Parallel Drug Importation project, which won the first prize as the Best Public Sector Project in the Western Visayas.

RDC chairman Antique Gov. Sally Zaldivar-Perez and presidential chief of staff Mike Defensor presented the award to Capiz Gov. Vicente Barnejo.

What caught my attention was that the German Technical Cooperation Assistance Project for Region VI participated in monitoring the Western Visayas Regional Development Plan 2004-2010.

Admittedly, the Germans can be credited with a more dependable monitoring system.

Anyway, Roxas City also won a prize for its diwal revival project. The Angel Wings shellfish project may have initially suffered a setback when the harvest this year fell short of expectations. Still, that does not undercut the impact of its help in lifting up the lives of fishermen engaged in diwal cultivation with the help of the University of the Philippines-Visayas’ aquamarine scientists.

Presyong Tama, Gamot Pampamilya

Actually, the project was started in 2001 by Sen. Mar Roxas, who gave an initial P1 million to facilitate the availment by Capiseños of cheap branded medicines imported from India.

These low-priced medicines are available at the Roxas Memorial Provincial Hospital and in the district hospitals of Mambusao, Tapaz, Dao, Bailan, Pontevedra and Pilar.

So far, according to Provincial Health officer Jarvis Punzalan, who is also Drug Management Reforms Project manager, there are 43 drugs under the project, which resulted in the savings of P47 million for Capiseno patients.

But the more important impact of the project is that the Negros Occidental provincial government decided last week to implement the Botica sa Barangay project all over the province.

This means that medicines will be available to barangay residents, not just to those who are confined in a hospital.

Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Maranon said there would be 352 boticas to be installed in different barangays.

The provincial health office, the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. and local government units signed an agreement to put up Botica sa Barangay all over the province.

Gov. Maranon, Philhealth Vice President Reynaldo Capangpangan and component city mayors and town mayors signed the agreement.

Later, Zonal Health groups would group barangays and identify district hospitals where residents can go to buy these affordable medicines.

Dr. Lydia Depra-Ramos said the Botica sa mga Barangay will be manned by high school graduates who will be supervised by pharmacists of district hospitals. They are to get P25,000 initial stocks of medicines, which are 40 to 50 percent cheaper than locally manufactured brand medicines.

While the generics law was designed to make generics drugs available at cheaper prices, drug companies soon sold cheaper medicines of undetermined quality. Physicians later hesitated to prescribe generic drugs due to fears that they are of lower quality.

A Nifedipine (Adalat) 20 mg tablet, for example, costs P16 at government pharmacies. Outside, they sell for P34 each. Thus, the daily savings for a hypertensive patient using the drug is P18.

In 2005 alone, with the trust fund gaining more than P1.1 million from markups generated from the sale of these medicines, the fund had more than quintupled.

Local multinational companies lowered the prices of their products to be competitive in the Capiz market. Some firms had even lower prices than those imported from India.

A clear example is gliclazide for diabetes. It was sold by PITC at P10 per tablet. Private drug stores used to sell it at P12.50. But Unilab is now selling it at P4.60.

In short, the impact is that cheaper medicines are now available to the public.

Now, you understand why I focused my eyes on the RDC VI affair.

Antique’s program for children

As I have noted earlier, the GTZ involvement in the National Development Authority’s monitoring of projects was the one that I considered a major factor in assessing the credibility of the RDC VI awards. That’s why I also wish to cite the Antique province’s Country Program for Children.

This won the second prize in the RDC VI’s excellence in governance. Zaldivar-Perez accepted the award from chief of staff Mike Defensor.

The Antique Child-Friendly Movement Team was organized in 2002 by Perez’s Executive Order No. 188. The provincial planning and development office was named team leader. It also organized Municipal Child-Friendly Movement teams and the Barangay Council for the protection of children.

Program intervention is focused primarily on disparity reduction in terms of health and nutrition, primary and secondary education, poverty and children care protection.

The provincial government counterpart for children and women rose to 29 percent of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) in 2005 from 17 percent in 2004.

The child-friendly projects of the province are undertaken by local governance and legislations; parents and caregivers are aware of the provisions of the law, especially the Rights of the Child.

Childhood diseases are already well managed. The availability of medicines from UNICEF and the trainings on Integrated Management of Childhood illnesses resulted in the early treatment of illnesses at the household or at the barangay level. The functional literary program improved parents’ reading and counting skills.

Drop-out rate dipped from 2.70 to 2.14 percent in 2005. In the secondary level, it rose to 66.4 percent while net enrollment ratio is 41.89 percent. This was higher than the regional and national average in the same school year.

The Council for the Protection of Children (CPC) also helped the Antique Provincial Health Office establish health and nutrition posts and birth in clinics in remote areas to help mothers, especially those with limited means of seeking medical treatment in hospitals.

Thus, it is apparent that local government units, without much fanfare, are actually contributing their share to uplift the quality of lives of people in the countryside.

That’s the reason why I opted to train my sights on the Western Visayas RDC’s tribute to excellence in governance. Here, I saw what is actually being done in the countryside. Later, I’ll write about more on what the local government units and line agencies are doing.