"This measure is regarded as one of the best preventive measures against the polio virus."
"This measure is regarded as one of the best preventive measures against the polio virus."The resurgence of polio has underlined the importance of achieving zero open defecation, and that means, going back to basics—providing public toilets especially in informal settler communities.
However, as of this early, Anakalusugan Representative Michael “Mike” Defensor is already wary about tapping the Department of Health to build more public toilets, mainly on account of a previous anomaly in the highly centralized construction of health stations.
According to Defensor, no less than the 41,913 barangay governments are in the best position to put up the public toilets, as needed, because they are more familiar with local conditions, adding that a decentralized or community-based strategy would be more preferable to address the issue.
A large number of Filipinos without ready access to a toilet still choose to defecate in open fields, bushes, ditches, canals or exposed spaces.
In Metro Manila alone, an estimated 3.5 million residents, or 25 percent of the population, still do not have access to a household toilet.
Coupled with vaccination, ZOD is regarded as one of the best preventive measures against the polio virus, a fatal and disabling disease transmitted via the fecal-oral route.
The problem with a centralized approach in constructing public toilets, according to Defensor, is that the DOH will just bid the project out to a private contractor that might bungle the job.
Last year, Defensor said that Health Secretary Francisco Duque himself bared “wide and deep” irregularities in the DOH’s centralized P8.1-billion program to construct 5,700 barangay health stations during the Aquino administration.
The private contractor abandoned the project after getting the initial payment of P1.2 billion and completing only 270 of the stations.
Despite the project’s failure, the contractor sent a termination billing to the DOH worth P2.9 billion, prompting Duque to call for an investigation by the Office of the Ombudsman.
By tapping the barangays to put up public toilets, Defensor said greater transparency and accountability will be better assured.
On top of whatever funds they generate on their own, barangay governments have their Internal Revenue Allotment, some of which may be used to put up the communal toilets in their areas, Defensor said.
In the P4.1-trillion 2020 national budget, barangays are getting a combined P130 billion in fresh funding, representing their 20-percent share of the P649-billion IRA for all local government units, according to Defensor.
Defensor cited estimates that only P20,000 is needed to build one functional toilet, excluding the costs of site acquisition, connecting the facility to a sewer line and maintenance.
Maybe it could well worth the try given the DoH’s questionable role in the anti-dengue campaign.
* * *
Long overdue.
At long last, someone has seen the wisdom and logic of doubling the maximum insurance protection of the country’s 63 million bank depositors.
Under House Bill 5812, Makati Congressman Luis Campos seeks to increase the maximum deposit insurance coverage (MDIC) from P500,000 to P1,000,000 per depositor per bank.
The MDIC’s “full value of protection” has been eroded considerably by the general increase in prices over the last 10 years, Campos pointed out.
Campos cited the growing number of Filipino middle-class families, including those with breadwinners abroad, that now have more than P1 million in liquid assets that may be held in banks.
Since 2017 alone, tens of thousands of depositors have been affected by the collapse or closure of 41 banks, mostly rural lenders, according to the state-run Philippine Deposit Insurance Corp. (PDIC).
The sad thing is that the system doesn’t give any concern as to the amount of a bank client’s deposit.
In 1963, the MDIC was initially fixed at P10,000. It was then increased to: P15,000 in 1978; P40,000 in 1984; P100,000 in 1992; P250,000 in 2004; and P500,000 in 2009.
So, whatever the amount of one’s deposit is, it can only be insured for a maximum of P500,000 then.
With Campos’ bill, at least it would be raised to P1 million.
Here’s hoping the amount of insurance should be equal to one’s total deposit.
