Napulan leads call for SP intervention on IRC operations
Three committees of the Iloilo Sanggunian Panlalawigan (SP) concluded its joint legislative probe on issues against Iloilo Rehabilitation Center (IRC) management.
With the Committee on Health as lead, the Committee on Public Order and Security and Committee on Appropriations summed up its findings in four major recommendations.
Docketed as Committee Report No. 2009-012, First District Board Member Macario Napulan, Health Committee Chair, presented the discussions in behalf of Vice Governor Rolex Suplico, Appropriations Committee chair and First District Richard Garin, Public Order and Security chairman.
Main issue at hand was the general health condition of IRC inmates hospitalized in numbers. The culprit turned out to be the un-nutritious catered food served daily here that eventually caused the inmates to be deficient in most basic of nutrients.
“The Committees found that since 2007, a caterer has been responsible for the food at the IRC; that this contract was supposed to be bidded out every quarter. However, it was also discovered that the contract of the present caterer at the IRC has already expired. The caterer also admitted they have no nutritionist but that they simply relied on the guidance of the grandmother who was a Home Economics teacher,” excerpts of the report went.
As such came the recommendations that started off with a Resolution requiring the IRC warden to submit a report on food management at the IRC with corresponding say on how to improve the system.
The three committees also resolved to require the General Services Office (GSO) through the Provincial Planning and Development Office to look into the expired contact of the current IRC caterer. This as it was further resolved that recommendations as to whether catering remains as an advisable alternative or whether biddings for the contract should continue on a quarterly basis.
Also resolved was the decision to require the Provincial Health Office to submit policy recommendations necessary to maintain healthy living conditions at the IRC. It should also be taken into account, the committees stressed, that other measures to monitor the health of inmates be considered if only to prevent the outbreak of diseases. With that, the committees likewise called for the provision of immediate curative relief for those stricken with illness.
And finally, a policy that would require the Provincial Nutritionist to come up with an economical but nutritious food guide “to be strictly followed by caterers at the IRC.”