Government’s Malasakit program marks 3rd anniversary

MINERVA BC NEWMAN

 CEBU CITY – The government’s “Malasakit Center Program” launched three years ago has reached its 100^th center that opened its services at the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa City, Tuesday, February 2 in time for its 3^rd year anniversary.

According to Senator Lawrence Go that the program is a one-stop service shop of government services that focused on healthcare and medical financial assistance.

The Malasakit Center (MC) at the RITM is the 54^th for Luzon while the Visayas has 22 and Mindanao has 24 MCs. Over the last three years, Go bared that the program has served more than 2,000,000 Filipinos nationwide majority of those experienced a zer0-balance billing in the hospital bills.

The first-ever Malasakit Center was launched in Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) in Cebu City last February 12, 2018 that was attended by President Duterte and Presidential Assistant for the Visayas secretary Michael Dino.

Go said that the Malasakit Center is inspired by the “Pagkalinga sa Bayan” project of Mayor Sara Duterte in Davao City which was established in 2017. 

Back in 2001, then-Mayor Rodrigo Duterte initiated the “Lingap para sa Mahirap” to provide medical and financial assistance to its constituents.  It was located inside Pagkalinga sa Bayan Center with Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO)

The program is an inter-agency synergy to facilitate speedy processes of availing government’s assistance in public hospitals.

The hospital where the Malasakit Center is located also receives a monthly funding from the Office of the President ranging from P3 million to P30 million depending on the capacity and level of the hospital. This fund comes from the Office of the President’s Socio-Civic Projects Fund or OP-SCPF.

At present, there is a Malasakit Center in all major cities and provinces in the Philippines. This enabled the government to provide medical and financial assistance to more people.

In December 2019, President Duterte signed Republic Act 11463 or the Malasakit Centers Act, which institutionalizes the center and make it available to DOH-run hospitals in the Philippines. OPAV is part of The Working Group or TWG Committee who drafted the key operations guidelines of the Malasakit Center.

The Malasakit Center is a project initiated by Office of the Special Assistant to the President (OSAP) and is implemented in cooperation with the provincial or city Local Government Units (LGUs), Department of Health (DOH), or LGU-operated hospitals in selected regions, Philhealth, PCSO, DSWD, and the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas (OPAV). (Photos: OPAV)