HOW MANY people know that the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) actually has a hotline for wildlife rescue and retrieval?
It would be good for everyone to know this number (09129092310), so that they could call the BMB whenever wildlife needs to be rescued or retrieved. The same number could also be contacted via Viber.
Other than the ordinary people like us, I think that the officers and staff of local government units (LGUs) should know this number, especially those in the uniformed services such as their policemen, firemen and barangay guards.
To that, they should include the local disaster risk reduction management teams. And for those who have forgotten, BMB used to be known as the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau (PAWB), and it is still under the DENR like before.
Most of us are aware of the need to protect the Philippine Eagle (monkey eating eagle) and the Tamaraw, but we should also know that there are hundreds of other native and endemic wildlife that also need our protection, even if they are not so popular.
Native species are those that evolved within our country but could also be found elsewhere. Endemic species are those that could only be found in our country. For example, the Philippine Warty Pig is an endemic species that is still heavily hunted up to now. Some might argue that it is only a pig, but I will also argue that it is part of our patrimony, therefore we should protect it.
TELECONSULTATION AS TELEMEDICINE
I started advocating telemedicine over ten years ago, but it did not take off at that time, perhaps because it was not the right time for it back then. Sad to say, I even heard the feedback that some doctors at that time did not like the idea because they could not make money from it.
Fast forward to the present times, we learned from our experience in the covid pandemic that it is already the right time to use telemedicine and not only that, the doctors could make money from it in the same way as face-to-face consultations.
As it is now, telemedicine in the form of teleconsultation is already very popular, except that right now, it is only available to the middle class and the upper classes who could afford it. That is so because one session of teleconsultation could cost a patient at least P800.
Fortunately, there are some government officials who are finding ways to make teleconsultation available to the lower classes in such a way that it would be free of cost to them. One such official is Gov. Presby Velasco of Marinduque Province, who is setting up a system that will service six municipalities.
As planned, the hub of the system will be the Provincial Health Office (PHO) where the doctors will be based. The spokes will be the Municipal Health Offices (MHOs) where local residents could avail of the system via the internet./PN
