Press Release
January 18, 2009

REVILLA JOINS SINULOG WITH MEDICAL, INFRA PACKAGE FOR CEBU

Senator Bong Revilla joined the million Cebuanos and local and foreign tourists in celebrating the prestigious Sinulog Festival, bringing a million peso medical assistance fund and P10 million infrastructural fund for Cebu province as part of the fulfillment of his commitment to improve public health and infrastructure in the entire country.

From his Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), Revilla allocated one million pesos as medical assistance fund for the needy patients in the province. The granting of the medical aid to the province was certified through the Memorandum of Agreement signed by the senator, Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and Dr. Gerardo Aquino Jr. of the Vicente Sotto Sr. Memorial Medical Center in the program held yesterday (January 17, Saturday) at the said hospital.

Ayon Revilla, financial difficulty forces most of Filipino families to ignore the importance of monitoring their health, which usually led to aggravation of their sickness.

"This is the reason why I see to it that a significant portion of my Priority Development Assistance Fund or PDAF will go to medical assistance. This is one of my ways to fulfill my self-directed task of alleviating our underprivileged countrymen," Revilla said, in his message prior to the MOA signing.

The lawmaker explained that indigent patients of the province can go or send a representative to the Provincial Capitol of Cebu and avail of his medical assistance by filing an application. The medical assistance will be given as a guarantee letter where the amount that the patient can avail under the program is indicated.

Aside from the medical assistance fund, Revilla regularly conducts medical-dental missions, blood letting and relief operations. All of these are under his "Kalusugan Ating Pangalagaan" o KAP program.

In the pursuit of his advocacy for the improvement of public health, Revilla filed the Nutrition Modernization Bill to provide a strong nutrition program not only in every barangay but also in schools nationwide. He also filed separate bills for the automatic PhilHealth Insurance coverage of all barangay tanod and health workers in the 41,882 barangays throughout the country.

The senator also vowed to allot P10 million from his PDAF as infrastructure fund for Cebu Province . "We must make it sure that there will be a smooth delivery of goods and services in the provinces and the construction of appropriate infrastructure is our answer to that," said Revilla, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Works.

Revilla expressed confidence that his infrastructure package will bring further progress in Cebu province and in effect, will boost national economy. "Government infrastructure improvement is an effective tool towards economic development," he added.

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