Great incentives for the barangays

Even in the midst of this global pandemic, there are advocacies that we still commemorate like October being breast Cancer Month which “Straight from the Sky” has adopted for several years now when Meann Solomon talked about this topic as a way of informing women that early detection can save their lives. So this time around, Meann asked Mrs. Ron Bersales Flores to be my guest tonight. She’s not only pretty, but also a good conversationalist. It turned out that she’s the former daughter-in-law of an old friend of mine, Jet and Edwina Ricardo.

So watch this on SkyCable’s channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.

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According to a report in The FREEMAN, “As the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic continues, P1 billion or nearly 10 percent of the annual budget for 2021 that the executive department has proposed is allotted for health.

“Cebu City Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia pointed out that of this amount P305 million or P211 million for field program and P94 million for barangay health program is set aside for the City Health Department.

“At least P150 million is allocated for anti-flu and anti-pneumonia vaccines, and P576 million is appropriated for the city's hospitals.

“The executive branch has lobbied for the approval of next year’s P10.8 billion budget, which is P4 million higher than this year’s approved P10.4 billion annual budget.

“In a previous interview, Mayor Edgardo Labella said health programs and services are among the priorities in the annual budget.

“He said the Cebu City Medical Center will be provided with additional equipment, and the city government will buy more medicines for the City Health Department.

“Moreover, portions of the proposed budget are for the senior citizens (P900 million) and for the 80 barangays (P796 million).

“Others are allocated for the Department of Social Welfare Services (565 million), the Department of Public Services (P539 million), the Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (P383 million), and the Department of Engineering and Public Works (P225 million).

“Also, the executive branch has proposed P371 million for the loan payment.

“It has identified several funding sources, including the proceeds from the South Road Properties and proceeds from other revenue-generating offices/departments totaling to P3 billion.

“Other sources are internal and external revenues amounting to P4.9 billion and P2.7 billion, respectively.

“The proposed budget is still subject for City Council’s deliberations and approval. Garcia said the budget hearing is scheduled in November after the observance of all Saint and All Soul’s Day.”

Another report says “Cebu City government will give P100,000 each to barangays that will be COVID-free by November 1 to December 31 this year.

“The decision came following the challenge of Secretary Roy Cimatu for Cebu City to be totally free of the disease. Cimatu has given the city a perfect 10 for its COVID-19 response four months after he flew to Cebu City to lead the enforcement of quarantine protocols following a surge of cases. At that point, the city was tagged as a hotspot of the pandemic in the Philippines.”

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In another report, the Police Regional Office welcomed the challenge of Cimatu in bringing the COVID-19 cases in Central Visayas to zero.

Another report quotes Police Brigadier General Albert Ignatius Ferro, PRO-7 chief, as saying “It is doable with all the work that we have done with back to basics protocols and ang cooperation jud sa nga Cebuanos will be our aim to have a zero case in Central Visayas or here in Cebu City.”

“We would like to replicate the good experience and lessons learned here in Cebu City to the other parts in Central Visayas more particularly in the municipalities and cities,” Ferro said.

Based on data from the Department of Health as of October 23, Cebu City only has 213 active cases from its total 10,205 since the start of the pandemic. Of the city’s 80 barangays, 43 are now COVID-free. Thirty-one of these are mountain barangays.