Filipinos’ miracle

We’re seeing a miracle ounce by ounce.

First, far from his duties as the DILG Secretary, Ronnie Puno entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Liga ng mga Barangay and the leagues of provinces, cities and municipalities to enroll 1.2 million barangay officials and their dependents to Philhealth (Philippine Health Insurance Corporation).

Beneficiaries of the DILG project are barangay officials in city or municipal barangays that have annual Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA) shares of less than P1 million each.

Projects which are fully-shouldered by aspiring political leaders are flooding now due to circumstance of time. With Ronnie, this is not the case. Amidst all circumstances, the DILG man implements development projects in partnership with the beneficiary local government unit. For Ronnie, projects are not his personal projects but projects of the Philippine national and local governments. His undertakings are purely for development and are not tinted by any political color. With the Philhealth project, the premiums shall be paid through a sharing agreement between the barangays and municipalities as stipulated in the MOU.



The annual premium per beneficiary is P1,200. Under this DILG project, PhilHealth will shell out P1,080 while the local government unit (LGU) concerned will pay for the balance of P120 in 4th to 6th class municipalities. In 1st to 3rd class cities and municipalities, the sharing will be 50-50, with the LGUs and PhilHealth paying P600 each per beneficiary.
Second, Ronnie reiterates his commitment to lobby to Congress to set aside funds in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) or national budget to finance anew benefits for barangay officials as provided under the Local Government Code.

Historically, the problem with laws Congress pass is that many of these are not being implemented fully in the absence of funding support. In the case of the Local Government Code that was passed in the early 1990s, there is a provision on the benefits due barangay officials, such as christmas bonuses, death and medical benefits, and educational scholarships for them and their legitimate children in state universities and colleges (SUCs). However, many of these benefits are not being enjoyed by barangay officials because of the usual budgetary constraints.

During his first stint as DILG secretary under the Erap Estrada administration, the DILG was able to oversee in 1999 and 2000 the grant of such benefits because of an existing funding program in the General Appropriations Act (GAA) or national budget. But this funding program disappeared starting in 2003, when Ronnie was no longer DILG secretary.

Even the provision of free college scholarships has been honored more in the breach. So one of the things Ronnie did was to get in touch with Chairman Emmanuel Angeles of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) and discuss this problem. The result was that Angeles eventually issued a memorandum reminding SUCs of their mandate to provide free college education to barangay officials or their legitimate dependents.

Kudos to Ronnie and the DILG for taking the cudgels for barangays officials and taking concrete steps for them to avail of benefits that are due them under our laws. With Ronnie, we are experiencing a miracle step by step. In essence, he is the miracle we all need.