The Department of Health (DOH) through the National Center for Health Facility Development (NCHFD) will release within this first quarter the P12.265M financial assistance to the local government of Maribojoc for its two-storey Municipal Health, Birthing and Day-Care Center. NCHFD Director III Arch. Ma. Rebecca M. Peñafiel, CESO IV relayed this week to Mayor Leoncio B. Evasco, Jr. that the P8-M is for infrastructure, P2-M for medical equipment and the remaining P2.265-M for indirect costs. Evasco, who has been working out the financial assistance from DOH as early as April 2009, said, “Minor repairs for the health center are not sufficient since the town has been utilizing the health facility constructed in 1956.”

“The health facility, that has served its purpose for the past 53 years, is now dilapidated and has become insanitary for our health patients,” Evasco added. The mother of Mayor Evasco, the late Toribia Badilla Evasco, was the town's pioneering public health nurse and was the one who facilitated and requested the assistance of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office for the construction of the health center back in 1956. The minimal budget allocations of the local government for the minor repairs and maintenance of the existing building made it serviceable. However, clamors of health service providers and patients for its renovation are persistent due to the inconveniences they are experiencing.

The new two-storey building will have health facilities including a birthing facility, an infirmary clinic and a day-care center. It will have enough space for the maternal delivery services and an appropriate room for patients that need to be isolated from patients of common diseases during consultations and medications. The local government will also procure new medical equipment so that local patients will have access to these facilities without spending much of their hard-earned income. The health center will also include a child-friendly day-care center. As soon as the funds reach the coffers of the local government and after the bidding and procurement processes will be undertaken, construction of the two-storey building will follow. The construction of the new health facility is an infrastructure support for the health and children's development program of the local government. # amjvistal