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BOHOL
Gov. Erico Aumentado has a formula to stop the brain drain
especially where physicians are concerned: increase of salaries
and allowances of municipal health officers (MHOs) and health
workers in the public sector and the full implementation of
the Magna Carta for Health, among others.
Aumentado
shared his formula with some 600 MHOs and still counting,
who gathered
at the MetroCentre Hotel and Convention Center in Tagbilaran
City for the 55th Association of Municipal Health Officers
of the Philippines (AMHOP) headed by Dr. Raul Echipare of
Iba, Zambales.
The
governor's announcement drew applause from the MHOs all over
the country who also relished the idea of the national government's
releasing to local government units (LGUs) the proper funding
for devolved health functions, or increasing the internal
revenue allotment (IRA) from 40 percent to 50 percent.
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As
things are, only the health personnel, their programs
and services have been devolved but not the funding
for their salaries and the implementation of these programs
and services.
With
the implementation of the Local Government Code (LGC)
of 1991, the LGUs had to absorb these expenses. In some
cases, this drew inadvertently from some mayors who
suddenly had to supervise physicians whose salaries
were bigger than theirs, and shell out part of their
already meager local government funds to fund national
health programs.
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In
his keynote speech, Aumentado said while some doctors have
stayed, the government cannot prevail upon others who wanted
to earn more for their respective families, preferred to go
abroad as nurses.
"Shortly
after the devolution, 29 MHOs left Bohol. I was very sad but
I understood their search for greener pastures," he recalled.
He
also said during his time as national president of the League
of Provinces of the Philippines (LPP) and the Union of Local
Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP), he created a technical
working group (TWG) now working closely with the Senate and
House Committees on Local Government and Appropriations to
amend the appropriate LGC provisions.
Aumentado
was LPP and ULAP president during his second term as governor
in 2004 to 2007.
He
added that to ensure that the proper funding allocated for
devolved health services will be used for the benefit of the
doctors and public health workers as well as the necessary
health services, he even favors the colatilla or proviso to
the effect that "the funding shall be held in trust by
the LGUs and solely appropriated for the purpose."
On
top of increasing their salaries and allowances and the full
implementation of the magna carta, Aumentado's other advocacies
include allowing the MHOs to practice their profession after
office hours, and advocating for stronger relations between
provincial, city and town health officers and local chief
executives by building bridges, not walls.
Aumentado
also said in a worst-case scenario, he will propose or advocate
for re-nationalization of the devolved personnel and services.
Dr.
Sharleen Lim, wife of Mayor Dan Neri Lim, Vice Gov. Julius
Caesar Herrera and Jagna Mayor Exuperio Lloren, president
of the Bohol chapter of the League of Municipalities of the
Philippines (LMP) also gave cordial messages.
Jagna
MHO Arnold Cagulada was the convention's overall chair. He
was assisted by Bohol's 46 other MHOs.
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