SENATOR Joseph Victor Ejercito said that the Universal Health Care which is one of his landmark legislation will be one of the best gifts for Filipinos this Christmas.
Ejercito, in a press conference Saturday, October 27, said that after the bill was approved in the third and final reading, it is expected to be signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte by December 2018.
He said that Universal Health Care aims in providing quality health care to all Filipinos.
On November 12, when Congress resumes its session, the approved bill will be ratified.
"That means, all Filipinos will be 100 percent covered by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation. At present, 35 percent of the Filipinos who are employed are covered by PhilHealth and with the Universal Health Car,e the remaining 65 percent who are indigent or poor Filipinos will be covered by PhilHealth,” Ejercito said.
"Checkups and laboratory test are covered so Filipinos should not be afraid to go to the doctors if they have a sickness.
They say prevention is always easier and cheaper than cure,” Ejercito said.
Ejercito also said that one of the landmark legislation that was currently passed in the bicameral conference is the creation of the Department of Human Settlement and Urban Development which is sponsored at the House of Representatives by Negros Occidental Third District Representative Alfredo Benitez.
Ejercito and Benitez pushed for the creation of the new department to address the housing problem in the country which they discovered in inspections and investigations they conducted relative to issues and complaints about substandard materials and poor location of the housing projects.
Ejercito said that the immediate housing backlog in the country is 1.2 million.
The proposed department consolidates all government housing agencies and combines the administrative functions of the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and the planning and regulatory functions of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB).
Ejercito said the department will be composed of the office of the Secretary, bureaus of policy development, coordination, monitoring and evaluation, environmental land use, as well as urban planning and development, housing and real estate
development regulation and the homeowners association and community development.
The proposed measure also establishes a national shelter board to provide a coherent and streamlined plan for the housing and urban sector development sector.
The board will be composed of the secretary of the department, and the heads of the National Economic and Development Authority, Department of Finance, Department of Budget and Management, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Interior and Local Government, National Housing Authority, Home Guaranty Cooperation, National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation, Home Development Mutual Fund, and the Social Housing Finance Corporation.
Ejercito in another development also condemns the killing of the nine sugar workers in Sagay City who are helpless against the armed men who perpetrated the crime. "We should wait for the investigation as to the motive and circumstance," he said.