State health insurer PhilHealth and Department of Information and Communication Technology (DICT) have recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate and work on a synchronized and well-coordinated ICT system to promote and ensure integration, interoperability, and interconnection of their systems and applications.

The said agreement is expected to further boost health insurance services to the 111 million Filipinos in the country and abroad.

Under the partnership, the DICT will assess and evaluate PhilHealth’s current applications and systems and provide recommendations and strategy for the improvement of its ICT system. It will also identify, develop and enhance the state health insurer’s existing systems and applications to ensure effective and efficient delivery of government services.

“We couldn’t be happier with this agreement with DICT. Maraming proseso at serbisyo ang PhilHealth na kailangan ng computerization at digitalization upang lalong maging mabilis at kasiya-siya sa lahat ng Filipino. Isa ito sa mga plano na inilahad namin kay President Bongbong Marcos Jr.. Hindi namin bibiguin ang Pangulo at ang lahat ng kababayan natin”, PhilHealth Chief Emmanuel R. Ledesma, Jr. said during simple rites in Pasay City. He also thanked the DICT team led by Sec. Ivan John Uy and Usec. David Almirol, Jr. for their support to the PhilHealth digital transformation plan.

For his part, Sec. Uy declared the agreement “a milestone in terms of e-governance” as this will address the long standing challenge of digitalizing public health care. Uy also said that such partnership fortified a common aspiration of providing better service to the Filipino people by allowing them to access their PhilHealth benefits easily, seamlessly and pleasantly. (PR)

Tacloban City – Six years in the making (2017-2023), the “ Proposed Ordinance Regulating The Use Of Plastic And Utilization Of Polystyrene As Packaging Materials In The City Of Tacloban, And Prescribing Penalties For Violations Thereof” was finally passed for third and final reading during the City Council’s regular session on Thursday afternoon, March 23, 2023.

To recall, the Committee On Environmental Protection And Waste Management chaired by Councilor Aimee Delgado-Grafil had been pushing this since 2017, but was slowed down in the years due to economic hardships brought by natural calamities- the latest of which was the over 2 years of COVID-19 pandemic at its highest peak.

On March 20, 2023, the committee chair called for another public hearing at the CEO Gym attended by business owners/and or their representatives.

The City Council further agreed that the newly-passed ordinance regulating plastic usage shall take effect in January 2024 or once signed by the City Mayor Alfred S. Romualdez. (TACLOBAN CITY INFORMATION OFFICE)

HILONGOS, Leyte – On International Women’s Day, a female-dominated agrarian reform beneficiaries organization (ARBO) in a remote village in this town thanked the newly-assigned Municipal Agrarian Reform Program Officer (MARPO) for helping them obtain legal documents that would strengthen their claim as legitimate owners over two lots they acquired.

The 272 members of the Barangay Agutayan Farmers Association (BAFA), including the 63 agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs), where 165 of them are women, learned that the properties they have acquired for several years now could be taken back from them because they do not have the legal documents to prove ownership. This was discovered when MARPO Ruben Rebato visited them in the mountain village of Agutayan on March 8 this year, as the whole world paid tribute to women around the globe.

While checking the documents, Rebato found out that although BAFA was progressing as an organization with assets now reaching P4.5-million, legal documents that would prove ownership over a lot they had purchased and another one donated to them, were missing.
BAFA lady-president, Vicenta Jaray, even hinted Rebato that the heirs of the previous owner who donated the lot where their organization’s building was constructed, are allegedly planning to take the property back from them.

Rebato, who used to be a legal officer, is now helping the BAFA officers obtain the “Extrajudicial Settlement with Deed of Sale” for the lot they had purchased and “Deed of Transfer” for the donated lot, to secure their claims of ownership over these lands.
Further, Rebato promised to guide them in preparing business contracts for the organization’s various business ventures, which include vermicast production.
Happy with the turnout of their first meeting with Rebato, Jaray said, “Sana di po muna kayo matransfer, sir.”

Lawyering (or PBD lawyering), according to Program Beneficiaries Development (PBD) Chief, Melecia Ong, is one of the assistances being extended by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to ARBs and ARBOs to make their activities and assets legitimate, among others. (JOSE ALSMITH L. SORIA/PR)

TACLOBAN CITY-Governor Ben Evardone has called on the national government to give the excise tax it collects from local governments that hosts mining operations like in his province of Eastern Samar.

Evardone made this call as the historic island of Homonhon Island, off Guiuan town marked the 502nd anniversary of the coming of Ferdinand Magellan that led to the rediscovery of the Philippines.

It was learned from the governor that the island hosts at least four mining companies which could have generated income not only for the provincial government but even to the municipal government and the barangays.

“This share of the local government units would be a big help for the development of these localities like construction of roads, water system, (the) building of schools, among others,” he said.

Evardone disclosed that the local government units hosting mining activities in the province have yet to receive their share of the excise tax collected by the national government from mining companies operating in Homonhon.

The four mining companies operating on the island were identified as Techiron Resources Inc., Emir Mineral Resources Corp., King Resources Mining Corp., and Global Min-met Resources Inc.

The four mining companies operating in Homonhon, which is rich in nickel and chromite, have a combined income of P9.3 billion, covering the years 2020 to 2022.

Gov. Evardone pointed out that under the revised Revenue Code of the Philippines, mining companies are taxed with four percent of the actual market value of their gross output.

He added that the collected tax will be divided among LGUs hosting the mining operations, 40% of which is for the barangay, 30% for the municipality and 30% for the province.

In sum, the national government was able to collect at least P55 million in excise tax from these four mining companies, with the provincial government supposed to collect P16 million.

Meantime, the governor said that while he does not like totally oppose mining operations on the island, he urged the mining operators to ‘strictly comply with existing and relevant environmental laws’ in order not to destroy the island and its environment.

“I am not totally against mining. I am for responsible mining operations. I don’t want that the bad practice of mining will engulf and eclipse the island’s rich history,” Evardone said.

Mining operations on the island started back in the early 1980s with its local people expressing their opposition saying it resulted in the destruction of their area like the contamination of the river.
(JOEY A. GABIETA)