“BUCAS centers aim to address health care gaps especially for the marginalized and decongest the public hospitals”
ASIDE from the mid-term elections which yielded interesting results, the country’s Gross Domestic Product year-on-year growth of 5.4 percent at constant 2018 prices in the first quarter of 2025 is another welcome news for the month of May.
Although the growth fell short of expectations, it is faster than the 2024 fourth quarter growth, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority, with the country’s economy among the fastest growing in the region.
Still on growth, San Miguel Corporation, one of the country’s most diversified corporations, reported P43.4 billion earnings for the first quarter of the year, supported by one-time gains from the partial sale of power assets and foreign exchange gains.
According to SMC, core net income, excluding these non-recurring items, grew 31 percent to ₱19.0 billion, driven by disciplined cost management and solid performance in most of its core businesses.
SMC Chairman and CEO Ramon S. Ang said “We had a good start to the year. Despite some challenges, our businesses remained resilient and continued to perform well.
“We will keep moving forward, grow responsibly, and make sure more Filipinos benefit from the progress we are making.”
As one of the oldest Filipino companies, SMC has become part of every day Filipino life. Its business interests that range from food and beverage, agriculture, power, fuel and oil, infrastructure to banking impact on the lives of Filipinos.
SMC is involved not only in business. Its corporate citizenship reflects its commitment to the well-being of Filipinos. Through its subsidiaries and its social development arm, San Miguel Corporation, projects and activities to promote advocacies on environmental stewardship, community and livelihood development, housing, education, nutrition, health, and disaster relief are carried out.
To strengthen its commitment to health advocacy, SMC recently opened its second Bagong Urgent Care and Ambulatory Service (BUCAS) Center through San Miguel Foundation at the Better World Smokey Mountain facility. It is operated in partnership with the Tondo Medical Center.
This is the second BUCAS center established by SMC in partnership with the Department of Health.
The first SMC-DOH BUCAS center is at the Better World Clinic in Cubao, Quezon City which started operations last year in partnership with the Quirino Memorial Medical Center.
It is the first privately-supported BUCAS center with SMC as the first private partner of the Department of Health in the rollout of the BUCAS Center initiative.
The BUCAS center program is the centerpiece of the DOH “28 for 28 by 28” initiative which aimed to establish 28 urgent care centers to serve 28 million Filipinos in need of accessible and quality healthcare by 2028.
President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., in his 2024 State of the Nation Address, announced the opening of BUCAS centers in different parts of the country.
“Intended to decongest public hospitals, these Centers shall provide competent ambulatory care, most especially to the poor and to the disadvantaged, for health conditions that do not require hospital admission,” the President added.
BUCAS centers aim to address health care gaps especially for the marginalized and decongest the public hospitals.
Among the services offered include laboratory tests, tuberculosis screening and management, vaccinations, cancer screening, surgical operations for breast, tumor, and cataracts; consultations for high blood pressure and diabetes, OB-Gyne consultation and services, mental health support, first aid and referral for vehicular crash injuries, nutrition support, dental care, animal bite treatment, and access to medicine through an in-house pharmacy.
“Many of our kababayan who fall sick are left waiting because the system is overwhelmed. That is where BUCAS Centers come in. It’s an opportunity for our Better World facilities to step in and make healthcare more accessible, ensuring that those who need minor procedures and essential medical services don’t have to wait any longer,” RSA said.
SMC’s collaboration with DOH in the BUCAS center program to address healthcare needs is a testament of malasakit, a core value of SMC that inspires the organization to make life better for the Filipinos.
Through San Miguel Foundation, SMC does not only provide the space for consultation rooms and an activity hall, it also facilitates the identification of patients who can avail of free high-quality medical services under the program.
“This is the kind of impact we want to make: help patients, especially the poor, recover faster, return to their daily lives, and thereby strengthen communities,” RSA added.
The first BUCAS center was inaugurated in Sto. Tomas, Pampanga on March 6, 2024. To date, there are 51 BUCAS centers in 33 provinces throughout the country.
(MTV, book author/publisher, is president/chief executive officer of Media Touchstone Ventures, Inc. and president/executive director of the Million Trees Foundation Inc., a non-government outfit advocating tree-planting and environmental protection.)