The Anakalusugan Partylist has offered local government councilors a partnership in pushing for health measures in Congress amid the continued threat of the highly transmissible Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Partylist nominee Ray Roquero made the offer during the recently-held Philippine Councilor’s League convention held in Iloilo City.

Currently represented in Congress by Rep. Michael Defensor, the partylist group has been pursuing legislative measures addressing public health concerns, especially the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This is not the time to rest. Rather, this is the time to consolidate the lessons learned from our continuing battle against COVID-19. In this period of disruption and doubt about what the future holds, this is the time to cement partnerships with those who are your logical and natural allies in the national legislature,” Roquero said.

“Anakalusugan party-list was born before the outbreak of the pandemic but born, it now seems to me, to perform at the right time a task like no other, and that is to help our fellow Filipinos battle through this public health crisis with renewed hope,” he added.

Roquero said that the partylist has so far authored at least 15 bills increasing the capacity and upgrading hospitals across the country.

At least ten legislative proposals were filed to improve the welfare of medical and health workers while 16 more were aimed at boosting health services in the country.

Through Defensor, the partylist group pushed for the enactment of 16 measures aimed at strengthening the country’s response to the pandemic.

Roquero explained Anakalusugan’s 10-point health program “designed to build up our human resource, strengthen the healthcare system at the LGU level, and ensure a just compensation for all those who are directly involved in providing health care to our people.” He said the party-list is pushing for the regularization of the benefits of barangay nutrition scholars (BNS), barangay health workers (BHW), barangay service point officers (BSPO), day care workers (DCW), as well as barangay tanods who have served as frontliners too during the pandemic.

“Anakalusugan also proposes a raise in the salaries of health-care workers, ensuring that their monthly take-home pay is globally competitive. This is one way to make them stay at their jobs and prevent the exodus of our best health-care front-liners to greener pastures abroad,” he said.

He said funding can be sourced from the increase in the national tax allotment (NTA) of local government units with the implementation of the Mandanas ruling that includes the taxes collected by the Bureau of Customs and other national agencies in the computation of LGU shares.

“And to make sure that their work environment is well-equipped to deal with any public health crisis, we will propose for every barangay the construction of a basic healthcare clinic to provide free service to our people,” he said.

“A partnership forged in the fire of a public health crisis in all likelihood will not wither away but will endure. So, I extend our invitation to you now: Let us make our party-list’s mission a big part of your mission, too,” Roquero added.