By Junex Doronio
LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu — Alarmed by the reported termination of some 80,000 barangay health workers (BHWs) all over the country, a top official of Diskarteng Pinoy regional party has lauded the move of the Department of Health (DOH) to investigate newly-elected Barangay chairpersons who “unjustly removed” BHWs for political and petty personal reasons.
On Friday (08 Dec 2023), Carla Aying-Cuba, Diskarteng Pinoy auditor, told Maharlika NuMedia that she had served eight years as a volunteer BHW and nursing aide in Barangay Mactan, Lapu-Lapu City.
“I have experienced terrible discrimination during my stint as a volunteer BHW. During snack time, the volunteer BHWs wouldn’t be invited. I was only given a meager allowance twice or three times when they knew that I was about to quit out of frustration that my sacrifices were not appreciated,” Carla recalled.
Diskarteng Pinoy, a regional political party founded on July 7, 2021, intends to participate in the party-list election in 2025.
Meanwhile, Barangay Health Wellness (BHW) Party-list Representative Angelica Natasha Co also praised the DOH for issuing a memorandum to its regional field offices on “protecting all registered and accredited BHWs against unjust removal.”
Co. vice chairperson of the House Committee on Health, on Thursday (December 7) disclosed that the memo of the Bureau of Local Health Systems Development (BLHSD) has directed each DOH center for health development to assist local health boards in the conduct of an investigation, deliberate with the local health board, and resolve disputes on the DOH’s joint memorandum circular (JMC) with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).
“There are national public health and safety interests involved, and the termination of over 80,000 BHWs has weakened the country’s primary health care frontlines,” Co lamented.
She noted that “the JMC on the Retention and Continued Service of Barangay Health Workers” issued last August provides for due process and steps to make sure the volunteer BHWs’ services are not unjustly terminated because of local politics and animosities.”
(ai/mnm)