Wednesday, October 29, 2008 Sumog-oy: GenSan crafts own health code By Ben O. Sumog-oy Issues and Views
(Fifth Part)
THE emergence of a bizarre situation feared in theory did happen in actual practice. With its ownership, control and management of the GSCH, the City Government is forced by circumstances (or by estoppels) to respond to the need for health services by people from other LGUs, using its own resources. There is no situation more bizarre than a City Government performing the functions of other LGUs at its expense. This is not only a financial question but also a justice question.
As a result of the absence of any guideline from the NOC, the City Government is now embroiled in an odd situation where it has to ask, almost on bended knees, for budgetary contributions from its neighboring LGUs. Viewed by some quarters as a sort of, for lack of a better term, sadistic tendency, most officials of these localities seem to enjoy a situation where the City Government assumes the very responsibilities which they owe, by virtue of their legal and moral mandates, to their respective constituencies.
With the passing of time, the situation is becoming more and more repulsive to the conscience. It is becoming so not because the City Government is unwilling to serve the cause of humanity but because it brings forth, as stated previously, a justice issue, with seemingly rapacious public officials of adjoining LGUs taking advantage of the prevailing administrative hiatus to scheme, by inaction, against the city government in order to unfairly serve their respective financial interests.
In the midst of this hampering situation, the City Government cannot afford to become merely reactionary (responding to problems as they arise); it must work towards well-defined objectives and proactively respond to the people's needs and aspirations.
The City Government should continuously engage in an active accumulation of key social forces -- particularly concerned government agencies, private sectors, civil society organizations and community-based formations of health workers -- in the public health arena so that it would become fully capacitated to square off with the present and the still emerging problems.
The formulation of the city's public health code, which shall be known as the General Santos City Health Code or GSCHC, is certainly a proactive response to brewing public health concerns. With the code, the city can reshape the public health arena by providing all concerned health agencies, institutions and other stakeholders a playing field where everybody can effectively work under common and synchronized rules and move towards a common direction.
The City Government can also combine, collectivize and maximize the efforts of all stakeholders on public health concerns to create a bigger public impact from its meager budgetary resources. It can also streamline all its health-related operational and administrative concerns; thus revving up the enforcement of the city's health policies, programs and activities.
The main objective of this project is to codify all applicable public health laws, policies, rules and guidelines. Codification, as defined, is a process of assembling all existing but relevant laws and policies into one statute or ordinance. Thus, the GSCHC shall primarily be an assemblage of relevant provisions of existing national laws, case laws, policies, decrees, orders, circulars and ordinances and other local issuances, which are applicable to local health operations.
Hunting for these documents, pointing out relevant portions therefrom and, finally, consolidating them into one ordinance are unarguably tough jobs. Among others, they require going to places, near and far, and reading and analyzing voluminous documents. They also require engaging in exhaustive discourses as to which are relevant and should be included in the code.
At first blush, these discourses appear very simple but, in actual practice, these are mind-boggling mental exercises that require substantial amounts of patience and fortitude.
(For comments: Email Address: bsumogoy@yahoo.com; Blog site: bensumogoy@wordpress.com.).
