News briefs

Pag-Ibig coverage for workers

CEBU City Mayor Michael Rama sought the City Council’s support to approve an agreement that would enroll 500 job-order workers (JOs) for Pag-Ibig coverage.

Pag-Ibig or the Home Development Mutual Fund requires membership of all self-employed individuals including the city’s JOs earning at least P1,000 per month.

But the council wanted to be clarified on the city government’s source of counterpart funds for their JOs.

“Employers have to give its share.  Where will we get the budget especially now that we have so many job order workers,” said Councilor Augustus Pe Jr.

Councilor Leah Japson, proponent of a resolution that authorizes Rama to enter into an agreement with Pag-Ibig for the city’s JOs, said the JOs will pay for their contributions.

Japson told the council that a draft agreement was already reviewed by the City Legal Office.

City Hall lawyer Ismael Garaygay III said Rama should not sign the agreement without a council resolution authorizing him to do so. The council agreed to first refer Japson’s resolution to the committee on laws.

Pe also wanted a provision added to the draft agreement to specify that payment of contributions by the JOs is “voluntary”.

The proposed agreement said the city government is supposed to furnish them a listing of all JOs who will be asked to pay monthly contributions of at least 2 percent of their monthly salary but not less than P200.

Contributions would be deducted by the city government from the JOs salary  and later submitted to Pag-Ibig.

The city government is also required by the MOA to deduct from the employee’s salary repayment for a multipurpose loan, which he or she would avail of in the future. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac

Hospital equipment request

CEBU City Hall sought a donation of medical equipment from a  Belgian hospital to help address the equipment shortage at the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) and its satellite hospital in the mountain barangay of Guba.

Councilors Alvin Dizon and Roberto Cabarrubias are coordinating with CCMC officials in complying with the requirements of the donation.

AZ Groeninge, a hospital in Belgium, offered to donate their old medical equipment to cities located in third world countries.

Cebu City was among those who applied for the donation, said Dizon. He said they would know next month if the management of the Belgian hospital approved the city’s request for donation.

Dizon and Cabarrubias traveled to Belgium last month to represent the city government in a meeting with officials of the AZ Groeninge hospital. The travel was paid for by the Belgian government.

If negotiations succeed, the Belgian hospital management would also send Belgian doctors and nurses to Cebu City to share their expertise city doctors.

Dizon said they have been told during their visit that Belgian doctors wanted to come to Cebu to study some tropical diseases affecting Cebuanos.

Former CCMC head Eduardo Sedoripa wrote AZ Groeninge in June to express the city’s interest on their hospital equipment donation.

Dizon said the Belgian hospital plans to dispose all of their used medical equipment after they integrate their four existing hospitals into just one big hospital in the next two to three years. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac

Monitoring street carolers

A RESOLUTION by the Cebu City Council called on traffic enforcers to monitor and bar minor street carolers from performing their spiels on board passenger jeepneys.

“This occurrence places  children’s lives and limbs at risk and calls for the enforcement of appropriate measures to prevent injuries or loss of lives,” said Councilor Nida Cabrera, who authored the resolution.

Councilor Ronald Cuenco said Cebu City doesn’t have an ordinance that bans caroling in the streets.

He said the city’s anti-mendicancy ordinance only prohibits and penalizes mendicancy and giving of alms to mendicants.

During last week’s off-site session at barangay Guba, Cabrera said the Department of Social Welfare and Services (DSWS) should take the lead with the Barangay Councils for the Protection of Children (BCPC) in monitoring and barring street carolers from passenger jeepneys. Chief of Reporters Doris C. Bongcac