A GOVERNMENT-run mental health center was launched in San Remigio, Cebu Thursday, February 21, as Vice President Leni Robredo assured her office will fund more mental health services throughout the country.
Robredo led the inauguration of the facility on Thursday. The inauguration was part of her office’s Angat Buhay Bridging Leadership Program.
The Office of the Vice President (OVP) allocated P2 million for the 100-square-meter facility.
Robredo said part of the P200-million budget of the OVP will be used to help families affected by mental illnesses.
She said mental illness affects families across the country that is why she wants the government to construct mental health centers in every province or component city.
Mental illness, she added, affects not just individuals but also their entire family and communities, since those who suffer from it have a hard time becoming productive members of society.
Aside from the mental health center in San Remigio, the OVP also has a program in Dalaguete where people with mental health problems are given free maintenance medicines.
Robredo said the OVP failed to expand its program for mental health because they were given zero budget for 2018, but she hopes they can do more now that the Senate approved their budget for their projects.
Part of her office’s budget will also go to livelihood assistance to farmers, fisherfolk and laborers.
In Cebu, the OVP initiated the establishment of a livelihood center in the City of Naga and education programs for coffee farmers in Tuburan.
“If we see that the government failed to provide the needs of the people in a community, we will do it by entering into public-private partnership (PPP). We have already implemented 170 PPP projects in various communities,” Robredo said. (EOB)