Repeal Tupas Jr.'s 'user's fee' ordinance, Suplico asks SP body
Suplico
Vice Governor Rolex Suplico in his first official "regular" privilege speech attacked the ordinance authored by first cousin, Fifth District Congressman Neil Tupas Jr.
Repeal it, came Suplico's immediate call to colleagues in the 9th Iloilo Sanggunian Panlalawigan (SP) saying his cousin's ordinance worsened the plight of the poor.
Tupas Jr. sponsored Provincial Ordinance No. 2005-0061 amending an earlier ordinance by adopting a standard user's fee in various district hospitals in Iloilo.
"District hospitals certainly do not exist for profit. No, sir, they certainly do not exist to make money. They exist to provide services to the poor at minimal or at no cost at all," Suplico in speech yesterday said. "Health is a subject matter that we cannot just sweep under the rug. Why? This is because our people's health is our nation's wealth. And certainly, increasing the fees of the district hospitals will not address the health problems of the Ilonggos."
As such, the Vice Governor appealed for support in his bid to repeal the Tupas Jr. move.
"..join me in proposing the repeal of Provincial Ordinance No. 2005-061," Suplico continued. "The repeal is an affirmation that district hospitals exist to serve the Ilonggos not to squeeze them of their last centavo and declare it a profit. Let us not look at sick Ilonggos as potential sources of revenue for the Iloilo Provincial Government."
And it did not stop there. Suplico continued while deriding the previous SP body saying "I find it strange that the 8th Sangguniang Panlalawigan funded Supplemental Budget No.1 for P10.97 million…….or one month later it appropriated P13 million to fund Supplemental Budget No. 2…and three months later, Supplemental Budget No. 3 for P75.99 million. The Supplemental Budgets have totaled around P100 million to date. If we have money for the supplemental budgets, we should have the money to provide for minimal or free services by the district hospitals," he ended.