Birthing center gets financial support

CEBU, Philippines - Talisay City Vice Mayor Romeo Villarante will release financial assistance to Barangay San Roque for its construction of birthing center, which will address the needs of pregnant women.

City Councilor Danilo Caballero is sponsoring a resolution extending financial assistance in the amount of P100,000 for the construction of the birthing center.

The amount will be taken from Villarante's local legislative assistance fund. An amount of P2 million is appropriated to the Office of the Vice Mayor every year for this fund.

According to Caballero, the DILG Legal Opinion No. 92 s.2011 states that Section 285 of the Local Government Code intended the "financial aid" granted to barangays created by the city or provincial government to be treated in the same manner as the IRA.

This means, according to Caballero, that the 20 percent of financial aid should be allotted by the barangays for development projects which shall be subject to application of rules and regulations issued by this DILG and the Department of Budget and Management with regard to its utilization.

"The project of constructing a birthing center in Barangay San Roque is fundamental to the basic services of the barangay," Caballero said.

City Councilor Richard Francis Aznar, chairman of the committee on health, said that one of the challenges of the Department of Health Millennium Development Goals is to reduce maternal mortality rate and neonatal death.

Aznar said that every delivery shall be facility-based and managed by skilled birth attendants. (FREEMAN)