President Rodrigo Duterte during the groundbreaking of the Cebu Cordova Link Express Highway project in this March 2, 2017 file photo.
President Rodrigo Duterte will lead the unveiling of the marker for the Malasakit Center to be set up at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in Cebu City on Feb. 12.
Duterte’s Feb. 12 visit will be the first in the province for this year, Presidential Assistant for the Visayas Michael Dino said in a press statement.
Dino said the Malasakit Center is the President’s Valentine’s Day gift to the Visayan people, “especially to poor patients in government hospitals who need financial aid from various government agencies.”
He said he discussed the program during the President’s visit to Cardinal Ricardo Vidal’s wake last year.
The president will be joined by heads of government agencies and government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) that collaborated with the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV) for the project.
After the unveiling, Duterte will meet with military and police officials in a joint command conference that will be followed by the inauguration of vehicles for the Police Regional Office (PRO-7).
Duterte is also scheduled to meet with mayors from the Visayas and Mindanao in a gathering organized by the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
The OPAV said the Malasakit Center is expected to serve as a one-stop shop for the processing of requests for financial assistance by indigent patients.
The VSMMC will serve as the pilot hospital and the project will soon be replicated in other public hospitals in the Visayas.
An agreement was signed by chiefs of hospitals in Central Visayas last November.
Among the signatories were St. Anthony Mother and Child Hospital, Talisay District Hospital, and Eversley Child’s Sanitarium and General Hospital in Cebu and Gallares Hospital and Del Valle Hospital in Bohol.
During the launching, the staff of the Malasakit Center will demonstrate how the single-window application and processing of financial assistance is done.
Dino said this is in keeping with the administration’s streamlining government transactions.
Malasakit Center project manager Pierre Jabagat said the center was established with the assistance of the SHS Batch ‘85 Foundation, OPAV’s private partner in charity works.
Cebuano designer Kenneth Cobonpue, a foundation member, designed the Malasakit Center’s marker.