THE LAW requires municipalities, cities and provinces to appoint representatives of Indigenous Cultural Minorities (ICMs) to the municipal, city and provincial councils if there are enough of them who are living within their jurisdictions.
This is a wonderful provision in the law, but it seems that its implementation is not uniformly or consistently done all over the country.
At the outset, I would say that the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the National Commission for Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) are the agencies that should take the lead in implementing these laws, but it seems difficult to gather compliance data about which jurisdictions are abiding with the laws and which ones are not.
Aside from the two national government agencies (NGAs) and the three levels of local government units (LGUs), I believe that the role of NGOs in the overall implementation should also be recognized, including the many Churches Based Organizations (CBOs) that are helping the ICMs everywhere.
Counting everyone, there should be a three-way cooperation in this overall process. Where can we get information about the status of implementation?
And how can we find out about the progress of the cooperation? Can any of the NGAs, LGUs and CBOs bring out the information?
Ideally, there should be an office for ICM affairs in the LGUs.
MORE COOPERATIVE OWNED HEALTH CLINICS
In theory, cooperatives could own and operate any business under the sun, provided that it is legal. Given that premise, it is therefore perfectly doable and allowable for a cooperative to own and operate a health clinic, even a hospital, for that matter.
Since there are no legal impediments towards doing that, the coops should go towards that direction, and they should get help if they want to do that. It’s no big secret that the existing Rural Health Units (RHUs) are almost always ill-equipped, short-funded and are lacking in doctors, nurses and other related health professionals.
As a matter of fact, you will be lucky if you can find a doctor in an RHU, more so in the Geographically Isolated and Depressed Areas (GIDAs), as defined by DOH.
As part of my advocacy, I am now convincing some satellite based internet service providers (ISPs) to look for possible uses of their services that would have a social impact in remote areas, as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs.
Also, as part of my advocacy, I have invited Dr. Luis Ramon Rodriguez, President of Philippine Medical Depot (PMD), to make his “Healthy Me” all-in-one kiosk innovation available to coops under affordable terms.
Hopefully, with the combination of these ISPs and PMD, more coops could put up their own health clinics./PN
