SOME netizens criticized the design of an insurance card distributed by the Cebu Provincial Government as it has the image of Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.
However, the provincial executive was unfazed by the negativity drawn by the card despite the existence of a 2013 Commission on Audit (COA) circular which states that the placing of public officials’ images and names on government projects is unnecessary.
“Kanang mga negative comments pwede man ilang nawng ibutang diha (Those who gave negative comments can place their faces in the card),” she told SunStar Cebu in an ambush interview on Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 11.
For the governor, what should be of paramount concern it that at least 2,000 barangay frontliners in the province are now enrolled in the group accident Insurance plan of the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).
Garcia made the pronouncement following the publication of a Facebook post by a Cebu news outlet about a GSIS card bearing her image and the Capitol on the background.
“Yawyaw mo diha, katong mga nasuya (Those who are envious can keep on yapping),” she said
The governor, though, clarified that she was not consulted when the design of the card was made.
“Wala koy labot ana uy (I had nothing to do with it). I didn’t even know. Karon pa ko kita (This is my first time seeing it),” she said.
According to the COA Circular 2013-004: “the display and/or affixture of the picture, image, motto, logo, color motif, initials or other symbol or graphic representation associated with the top leadership of the project proponent or implementing agency/unit/office, on signboards, is considered unnecessary.”
On July 19, 2019, Garcia announced during the first general assembly of the Liga ng mga Barangay Cebu chapter that the GSIS has presented a proposal which the Province may avail itself of for barangay officials, secretaries, treasurers, tanods (watchmen), health workers, daycare workers and animal health workers under its group personal accident insurance program.
Barangay workers are enrolled in the GSIS group accident insurance package worth P50,000 for each beneficiary.
“It was really me who wanted to have them enrolled in the GSIS (insurance program),” Garcia said.
She recalled recently meeting two tanods in the northern town of Medellin who got hurt on separate occasions and had to pay for medical fees, including casting for a fracture at P15,000.
“They didn’t even realize they were covered by the program. Now, they can claim from their insurance,” Garcia said. (RTF)