Monday, November 03, 2008 Sumog-oy: GenSan crafts own health code By Ben V. Sumog-oy Issues and Views
(Conclusion)
BY NOW, we can already picture out the nature of the rituals that people need to go through in order to come up with the health code's manuscript. But still the work is more than these. Aside from those culled out from existing resource materials, the research process, suggested in this proposal, still calls for the drawing out of new concepts and ideas via workshops, focus group discussions (FGDs) and interviews of key informants, among others.
These processes are suggested to ensure that the proposed health code will not become alien to local situations and experiences. It should have strong moorings on local situations and experiences, if it is to become effective both as a health program and as a regulatory measure.
The democratic way of managing the affairs of the local government has been the efficacious hallmark of the administration of Mayor Pedro B. Acharon, Jr. and Representative Darlene Magnolia Antonino-Custodio, and this serves as the magic of their formidable staying power in the local political arena.
Going back, this democratic dimension in the research process is incorporated in the whole package of the work not only for the purpose of drawing fresh ideas through participatory means but also to ensure the social mobilization component of this project, as indicated by the stakeholders' internalization of their respective health campaigns and advocacies and their deeper understanding of health issues and concerns. Internalization of an idea is condition sine qua non to collective action towards certain goals.
Technically, however, the drafting process would be subject to the validation and cross-validation of all relevant ideas and concepts and so that those that could soon find their respective places in the code are filtered through the people's different day-to-day experiences. In this way, aside from its desirable effects in public education, the integrity of the considered concepts and ideas is tested and their responsiveness to the people's needs and aspirations is ensured.
To sum up, the drafting of the code transgresses many work dimensions. While writing is the most crucial task in this project, the bulk of the work involves data and information gathering (compilation and analysis of secondary documents) and social research (gathering of primary information, but with social mobilization component).
There is a need to stress, at this juncture, that the social mobilization component of the research work should not be sacrificed so that the drafting of the code could have an added educational value for the people and for its stakeholders. The drafting of the code is a boring exercise, if the same shall not be made as an opportunity for intensified social discourses.
Finally, the writing of the city's health code is governed by two important principles: One, its process and outcome should be given cultural perspective in deference to the city's tri-people character and continuing struggles by various sections of society for gender equality in both the productive and reproductive spheres; and, Two, it should be pursued with the meaningful participation of stakeholders, sectors and communities to ensure that the health code would have strong moorings on local situation and the people's continuing narratives.
We can only hope that, at the end of this writing process, we already have a revitalized and dynamic local bureaucracy, fully committed to the effective and efficient delivery of welfare and health services to the poor and the underprivileged sections of society. Hopefully, too, by that time, we already have a group of bureaucrats who consider local governance as an arena of struggle for which aspirations they are willing to offer their all.
We also hope that the city's health code, when completed, will become not only an instrument for the furtherance of our common struggle towards the full humanization of our society, where those who are less in life are really more in law; but also as an instrument for the eventual transmogrification of our social system into one that strongly embodies our ideals and aspirations.
All these would, perhaps, differentiate the GSCHC from the rest.
(For comments: Email Address: bsumogoy@yahoo.com; Blog site: bensumogoy.wordpress.com.).
