Official allocates P1 million for medicines of poor BARMM residents

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A member of the 80-seat Bangsamoro parliament had entrusted an initial P1 million grant from his office to the Mercury Drug Corp. as deposit for medicines for poor constituents, optimistic his 79 other companions in the law-making bloc shall do the same. 

The Catholic Station DXMS here reported on Saturday that Romeo Sema, who is representing the Moro National Liberation Front to the parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, led the symbolic turnover Thursday of the P1 million tranche to a representative of the pharmaceutical giant’s four branches in this city.

The Ministry of Health-BARMM and the office of Sema, who is MNLF’s secretary-general for political affairs, shall together oversee the medical support program for impoverished residents of the Bangsamoro region.

A physician in the BARMM parliament, Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., who is an eye specialist, said Saturday, the project of Sema and the MOH-BARMM is commendable.

Sinolinding, most known as the “doctor sa parliamento ng Bangsamoro,” is known throughout the Bangsamoro region for his humanitarian projects too.

Sinolinding, an ophthalmologist trained in India, and his support staff had treated 2,017 eye patients in one outreach mission after another since he was appointed as member of the BARMM parliament by President Ferdinand Marcos in late 2022.