Implementing universal health care among my ‘biggest projects’ – Marcos
President Ferdinand Marcos gives a speech on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, at the launching of the Consolidated Rice Production and Mechanization Program in Banga, South Cotabato. (Photo from the Presidential Communications Office)
MANILA, Philippines — Implementing the Universal Health Care Act is “one of the biggest projects of my administration,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Wednesday.
The president stressed this point in a speech that he gave in Koronadal City, South Cotabato, during the launching of the Healthcare System and Referral Manual for the province.
He said he and his newly appointed chief of the Department of Health, Secretary Teodoro Herbosa, had started closely studying how to make the nationwide implementation of the law as successful as it had been in South Cotabato.
The Universal Health Care Act was signed in 2019 by then-President Rodrigo Duterte. Its full implementation is expected to take 10 years.
“The Universal Health Care Act is simple. It’s saying everyone who’s a Filipino citizen should be supported in buying medicines, consulting a doctor… We should also help them in their hospitalization and their treatment,” Marcos said in Filipino.
Government aid for South Cotabato
During the program, Marcos also led the distribution of government aid.
Social Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian accompanied Marcos in handing out P10,000 cash aid to each of the 2,000 beneficiaries.
The Department of Labor and Employment also assisted 619 beneficiaries under its Integrated Livelihood Program, which amounted to a little over P13 million.
Other agencies also provided employment assistance — the Department of Trade and Industry, the Technical Education Skills and Development Authority, and the Department of Agriculture.
Earlier in the day in South Cotabato, the president also attended the launch of the South Cotabato Consolidated Rice Production and Mechanization Program, which aimed to boost local harvest from four tons per hectare to eight tons per hectare.
At that event, Marcos led the turnover of farm assistance worth over P115 million to the beneficiaries, which included a warehouse, hauling truck, hybrid seeders, rice processing center, rice seeder, and inbred rice seeds, according to a statement issued by Malacañang Palace.
