Dela Rosa presses revival of MROTC, opens hearing to studes and youth

TO BE OR NOT TO BE?

Senator Ronald “Bato”

Dela Rosa pledged to support the proposed mandatory Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) and vowed to open inviting students to the subsequent hearings, on January 25.

As noted by Sen. Pia Cayetano, students were only represented by the National Youth Commission for the past two hearings despite other youth groups protesting outside the Senate of the Philippines as they address the bill

DOH execs under fire for “cancer funds abusage”

MARIZ CALMERIN & AIZELLE MARIE MAKILAN

LIVES ON THE LINE. A medical officer in the Department of Health (DOH) filed a complaint against its senior officials before the Office of the Ombudsman for alleged mismanagement of the agency’s funds allotted for benefiting cancer patients.

DOH Medical Officer Dr. Clarito Cairo Jr., filed a complaint signed on December 23, 2022, arguing that DOH Officer-in-Charge

Undersecretary Beverly Ho, Former Director Anna Melissa Guerrero, Directors Razel Nikka Hao and Anthony Cu, and Doctors Kim

Patrick Tejano and Jan Aura Laurelle Llevado, conspired together resulting to alleged grave misconduct, malversation of public funds, and violation of Section 3(e) of Republic Act 3019 or the “Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.”

According to Cairo Jr., only 19 of the projected 31 access sites or hospitals received a grant for the Cancer and Supportive-Palliative Medicines Access Program (CSPMAP).

The mismanagement of the CSPMAP budget of P786 million and the Cancer Assistance Fund (CAF) budget of P529 to add financial and academic burden on parents and learners respectively.

“Maybe next hearing. Don’t worry. Even if I’ve experienced last time that I was insulted by a resource person who is now a congressman,

I am not worried about that. I am still open,” Dela Rosa said as he referred to his past clash with Rep. Raoul Manuel, president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines at the time. Even with the lack of personnel to assist the program, Dela Rosa insisted to bring back ROTC as he, together with the Senate as the proponents of the said bill, promised to support the implementation of the program.

If the approval of the pending bill succeeds, it will be under the curriculum of Senior High School that will include Ethics of Services, Patriotism and Nationalism, Basic Military Training, Civic Training for Students, and Disaster Response Operations since Pres. Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos announced that the bill is one of the administration’s priority.

Courtesy: RAPPLER million, both coming from the 2022 General Appropriations Act, he claimed, “putting the lives of many cancer patients (especially those enrolled in CSPMAP since 2021) in jeopardy.”

Cairo Jr. added that hospitals namely Philippine General Hospital, Rizal Medical Center, and Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center had been excluded from the list of access sites, threatening their pursuit of continually saving lives of cancer patients since 2011.

However, the DOH claimed that the sub-allotted funds were based on the verified and mutually-agreed requests of the hospitals, while the allegedly excluded hospitals already received necessary cancer medications and financial support for cancer care.