ROUGH CUTS | A highly urbanized city sans own hospital

There was hardly any marked difference between the opening salvo of the campaign for the Barangay Sanggunian and Kabataan Elections (BSKE) with that of the first day of the campaign for the Mayoral and Sangguniang Bayan polls in 2022.
In the barangay of the third congressional district where we currently live the candidates for captains who are known to be financially supported by their family had their motorcades, while the less money-endowed candidate and his line-up only had their “walkacade”. They walked through the major barangay roads accompanied by their relatives and loyal supporters.
We are certain though that only those who will walk through the most blighted of villages in our barangay during the one-week campaign will likely get the support of the voters in those areas. Therefore, the likelihood is that the less financially-endowed candidates would be the ones to visit the hard-to-reach areas as they are more prepared to do battle with the difficult and rugged pathways leading to those secluded places.
Nonetheless, their win is still not guaranteed as the usual determinant is always money – the very thing that could make voters in remote areas change loyalty and eventually forget about commitment to support those who really feel for them.
In our barangay there is this one far-flung village that has been known to have treated the choice of candidates as a simple “pera-pera lang”. Meaning, whoever is or are the candidates who offer the highest bid and on appropriate time get their final choice. And yet, it is the residents of that village who complain the loudest of their unattended road and need for power connection before a nationally-implemented project was started with part of its stretch crossing the same village.
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The local government of the Island Garden City of Samal (IGaCOS) is reported planning to buy two (2) power generating sets. Without doubt the purpose of procuring the generators is to augment the quality of power that is very much wanting in that island city that is part of the Northern Davao Electric Cooperative (NORDECO) franchise.
Will it solve the power problem in that island city? Our take is that it all depends on what the local government will do with the generators. Will it be the one to operate the generators and let the NORDECO tap its Samal lines to the power produced by the two generating sets? Or, will IGaCoS) donate the gen sets to NORDECO and let the power coop run the same and add its produce power to what it is capable of supplying the island local government?
Of course we can see the risks for the LGU of Samal if it decides to operate the power generators. The city has to provide the personnel to operate the generators, come up with a continuing budget for the fuel requirement of the generating sets, as well as its maintenance.
Of course it would be a “win-win” proposition if the Samal LGU will enter into an agreement with NORDECO that the latter fully subsidizes the fuel needs of the generators as well as the men who will run the same, do its maintenance and make sure that it is properly tapped to the distribution lines of the electric cooperative in the city only.
Be that as it may, what is clear is that the LGU of Samal is now undertaking whatever is necessary to sustain its drive to make the island LGU a tourist destination of choice. The officials of the city must have realized that without sufficient and quality power all the efforts of the local officials will only fall to naught if the tourism establishments in the island will continue to be bothered by long power interruptions almost on a daily basis.
And certainly without power, it follows that communication lines will also be off and those tourists who cannot stand without being connected to their friends or business associates or their business operations will be hesitant to go to the island for their vacation
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Again we are still looking forward to hearing any of our city councilors introducing proposed ordinances that will address problems attendants to such concerns as education in the city, delivery of health and related services, sustainable environment protection, prevention of agglomeration of informal settler colonies in the city proper, and improvement and provision of water supply in areas far from the present water sources and distribution facilities like in the city’s north sector, and one lasting solution to the burgeoning traffic congestion in the present one-Davao City set-up.
Say, on education accessibility – there are still villages in the upland communities where learners have to walk as far as five to eight kilometers of mountainous pathways just to reach the nearest elementary or secondary schools.
On health services we can remember a feasibility study that was commissioned by the city government on the possibility of putting up a city-owned hospital where residents of Davao City can go for their health or medical needs. We have heard that the city is planning to tie up with the University of the Philippines that is planning to put up a branch of the UP-Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH) in the city. The last that we heard about the city hospital and UP-PGH tie-up was from the mouth of Third District Congressman Isidro Ungab.
It’s been about two years since but so far we have yet to hear our City Council members or anyone from the executive department issue a statement as to the status of the commissioned feasibility study.
Indeed we cannot disagree with the observation of one avid friend of this newspaper – Dinky Munda – who posted on Facebook that Davao City is perhaps the only highly urbanized city without its own hospital.
And to think that possibly by today the city’s population could already be about 2 million people or may be more.