Instead of vehicles, computer sets and other equipment, Philippine National Police chief, Gen. Rommel Francisco Marbil, chooses a health card for all policemen as donation from private institutions and other private partners of the organization.

And while he admitted that it has long been his dream ever since he entered the police service, Marbil said that dream is inching closer to reality as he revealed that they are now working with some financial institutions that will help shoulder the health care benefits for all uniformed personnel of the organization.

Marbil said the health cards that are being planned to be provided for police uniformed personnel will serve as donations from the financial institutions that have expressed willingness to assist the police organization on the health care needs of all cops in the country. 

“The financial institution will help us with the health card. We need to ask first how much benefit they could provide,” said Marbil in an interview.

The health cards benefit was first mentioned by Marbil in his speech during a flag-raising ceremony at Camp Crame on Monday, May 6, as he revealed that this was brought up when some private institutions have begun asking how they could help the PNP. 

While the usual form of assistance is through donations of materials to improve the move, shoot and communicate capabilities of the PNP, Marbil said it is time to convert the assistance into something that would improve the welfare of every policeman. 

“Our dream is for all policemen to have health cards. This is what we are trying to do. We are trying to do anything for our policemen,” said Marbil in his speech.

By taking care of the basic needs of the policemen, he explained that this would translate to improved public service to the people.

He explained that the usual donations of vehicles and other move-shoot-communicate equipment are usually being covered by the assistance from the local government units, aside from the allocations from the national government. 

Once implemented, the target priorities are those outside Metro Manila, especially in far provinces.

“The need for a health card is immediate. If you are assigned in Metro Manila, it is accessible to immediately seek the assistance of doctors, but that is not the case in far areas,” said Marbil.

“Doctor’s assistance is really important so if each of our personnel has a health card, it would be easy for them to seek medical assistance even if they are in the provinces,” he added.