By Leonardo Micua

 

ONE of the bombshells that the city councilors of Dagupan discovered in their review of the proposed Annual investment Plan was the non-enrollment of the indigents for two straight years.

This is a very serious matter that needs to be looked into as Mayor Brian Lim is again asking another P6 million for PhilHealth coverage in the 2022 annual budget, yet there is no record whatsoever that shows the P6 million set aside for the same in 2020 and another P6 million in 2021 were used, at least not for PhilHealth.

City Social Welfare and Development Officer Liela Natividad, told the sanggunian that her office exerted efforts to enroll the indigents in 2020, citing their own timeline in negotiating with PhilHealth but confirmation by PhilHealth to their application, she said, came too late, almost at the end of the year.

She claimed the reason she did not also enroll the indigents in 2021 was because of the sudden increase in PhilHealth premiums and that the money allocated for the purpose that year may no longer be enough to cover all the indigents in the list. That was too flimsy an alibi to be believed.

Now, the people are asking where have all the appropriations for health insurance of indigents now amounting to P12 million gone? Can the unspent allocations be used for the same expense under a reenacted budget?

The non-enrollment of the indigents for two straight years is certainly a big issue that can boomerang on the face of Mayor Lim. For neglecting the health insurance of the poorest of the poor in Dagupan, he will likely be accused of being anti-poor, who hates to rub elbows with the unwashed and who does not care for their needs.

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The impact of the war in Ukraine will certainly be felt by us in the next few days. Some officials foresee the possible return of fuel rationing that we experienced during the first Gulf War and when Dagupan City was still in shambles due to the big quake in July 1990 and followed by the second Gulf War when Kuwait was invaded by Iraq.

The fuel as well as the economic condition in PH could be worst this time because all the other nations in Europe, that were dependent on gas and oil from Russia, may have to source their fuel from the Middle East, where our supply is coming from.

At this stage, the Ukrainians are holding their ground and prepared to repel the invading Russian forces who were coming from three sides.

And if NATO forces led by the US now in Poland, Romania and Estonia will make good their promise to come to the aid of Ukraine if attacked, it will be a blood bath in the whole of Europe and soon the world. 

Let us remember that Ukraine is still not a member of NATO. It was Ukraine’s incoming membership with NATO that Russia was trying to prevent, that was why the invasion had to take place. 

Let’s pray that the Russia-Ukraine war will de-escalate very soon. Or else, the whole world will be at risk of a nuclear war that could end all wars as there is a certainty that all humankind will be wiped out on earth. 

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Pangasinan has just welcomed a P5 billion investment through the courtesy of Aboitiz Power Corporation that intends to build a solar power project in Bugallon, capable of generating 147 million kilowatt hour of electricity annually, enough to light 60,000 homes yearly,

We need more solar power projects such as this in Pangasinan. Solar is clean energy and the  Cayanga Bugallon Solar Power Project will soon bring this kind of energy.

By the way, the Cayanga Bugallon Solar Power Plant will become the third power generating plant in Pangasinan after the San Roque Multi-purpose Dam Project and the Sual Coal-fired Power Plant.

This makes the province the biggest contributor of power to the Luzon grid and to the whole nation.

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