‘IT’S LIFE OR DEATH FOR US’

This Cebu City-issued ambulance is kept on standby at a village-owned garage in Barangay Agsungot. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Residents from the mountain barangays of Cebu City have to go through steep and rutted roads if they are to reach hospitals in the city’s center.

Should the ambulances recalled by Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña be returned, villagers will have to ride on motorcycles for about 30 minutes to an hour just to reach the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) or any hospital in the city proper since there are no public utility jeeps (PUJs) plying the routes between the city’s downtown areas and Barangays Agsungot, Cambinocot and Babag.

A lot can happen in those thirty minutes to an hour and can spell life and death to persons in need of medical assistance.

This is what worried residents and officials of Barangays Agsungot, Cambinocot and Babag that were the first of the city’s 80 barangays to receive Osmeña’s recall order on their ambulances and mini buses for “inventory” purposes.

The order has taken a political color since the barangay captains of these mountain villages are allied with Michael Rama, the city’s former mayor and Osmeña’s political nemesis.

Lifeline

Jemelito Herbito, a barangay tanod (village watchman) of Agsungot, said the city-issued ambulance is the only emergency vehicle in their village.

“Gamit kaayo na. Kung ing-ana man lang diay huwat nalang diay ning pasyente diri sa amo mamatay (Our ambulance is very useful. If that’s the case, we will just wait for our patients to die here because we don’t have any emergency vehicle),” he said.

Agsungot, an agricultural village in the northern part of Cebu City, is about 25 kilometers from the lowland area.

Those traveling to Agsungot from the city proper take a PUJ up to Barangay Pit-os, another mountain village, and from there will have to ride a habal-habal (motorcycle for hire) to reach the village.

According to Herbito, even those from their neighboring villages have been using the ambulance in Agsungot because among the barangays in the northern mountain area, Agsungot is fortunate to have two nurses who can assist the patient while inside the barangay ambulance.

No nurse, doctor

For Babag Barangay Councilman Eleazar Mabini, his main concern would be the extreme difficulty that patients would have to endure if they would have to travel to the city center via a motorcycle.

Mabini said most of the residents in his village could not afford to buy a motorcycle, much less a car, and their ambulance is being used to transport villagers to the hospitals, even if only for the checkups of their senior citizens.

“Wala mi nurse. Wala mi doctor. So kining mga residente diri adto gyud ni sa ubos magpa checkup, magpa ospital. Mao na among gamiton (We don’t have a nurse. We don’t have a doctor. So the residents here use the ambulance so that they can go to the lowland for their checkup or hospitalization),” he said.

He said Babag has two ambulances. A multicab, which was received by the village in 2010 and a Toyota Hi-Ace, which was issued to the barangay in July last year.

Barangay Agsungot driverJoel Villegas points to the dilapidated mini bus donated by North District Rep. Raul del Mar that was issued to the village over a decade ago by the Cebu City government. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Mabini said the ambulance that was ordered recalled by Osmeña was the multicab, issued to the village in his name. Last Tuesday, he said he received the recall order accompanied by a Property Return Slip (PRS) form from the city’s General Services Office (GSO).

Mabini feared it would just be a matter of time before Osmeña would also recall the Hi-Ace ambulance since both vehicles were issued to Babag during the Rama administration.

Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (CCDRRMO) officer in charge Nagiel Banacia, however, assured the barangay ambulances were only being recalled for an inventory of equipment and personnel.

He said the inventory began three weeks ago and the ambulances that were inventoried had been returned to their respective barangays. But there are more ambulances that have yet to be inventoried, such as those in Barangays Cambinocot, Babag and Ermita, he added.

Where were you?

Banacia stressed the city government has to know the location of the ambulances issued to the barangays, if there is any person using the ambulance and if this person is trained to perform pre-hospital care.

He said that as CCDRRMO head he needs to know what are the limitations of these personnel in performing pre-hospital care based on their training and exposure.

He said there are 18 ambulances that remain undelivered for the barangays. These ambulances will not be released unless the personnel in the barangays will have proper paramedical training.

“I’ll give you an example, there was a vehicular accident in Barangay Pit-os last Sunday. Several senior citizens were victims. But where was the ambulance of Barangay Pit-os? Asa sad ang ambulance sa Barangay Pulangbato o Agsungot o Cambinocot? There was none,” he said.

He said he had to send ambulances from the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (ERUF) and the City Command Center (C3) based in Barangays Mambaling and Kamputhaw to assist the vehicular accident victims. Even the Red Cross, he said, traveled to the scene of the accident to assist the victims but no one came from the neighboring mountain barangays.

Yes, he can

Rene Bordeus, regional director of the Department of Interior and Local Government in Central Visayas (DILG-7), meanwhile said the Cebu City government has the prerogative to take away the ambulances and mini buses from the barangays since it is the owner of the vehicles.

This means that Osmeña, as mayor, can recall vehicles without violating any law, Bordeus told Cebu Daily News.

As to the redeployment of the ambulances, Osmeña earlier told reporters that this would depend on the evaluation and recommendation of ERUF, which has been tapped to evaluate the skills of the persons tasked to man or operate the ambulances.