CEBU CITY -- Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar said Friday that three of the landmark bills signed by President Rodrigo Duterte into law this month will uplift the lives of the Filipino people.
Andanar was the guest speaker during the Liga ng mga Barangay, Leyte chapter’s annual convention at the IEC Convention Center Cebu.
Andanar said the Universal Health Care (UHC) law, which mandates the automatic enrollment of all Filipinos into the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), as either direct or indirect contributors, ensures “100 percent health care to all the Filipinos.”
The poor will now have easy access to doctors because primary health care needs will be given down to the barangay level, he said.
“With the new law, the national government will equip all health care facilities in the barangays, city and provincial hospitals, all the way up to the Department of Health-managed medical centers,” Andanar told the media in an interview.
He said former Special Assistant to the President Christipher “Bong” Go successfully shepherded the UHC bill to Duterte until the latter signed it into law on February 20.
Other bills that Go helped lobby for the President’s signature are the Expanded Maternity Leave and the measure overhauling the 21-year-old Social Security System (SSS) charter.
Under the Expanded Maternity Leave, all working mothers in the government and private sectors are guaranteed 105 days of paid maternity leave credits. Seven days of the leave are transferable to fathers.
The law increased the paid leaves of single mothers from the original 60 days to 78 days.
Andanar said the law also benefits single mothers as it gives them 15 more days leave.
He also disclosed that the new SSS law assures a PHP10,000 financial assistance for two months to workers who have lost their jobs.
The new law also calls for mandatory SSS coverage of overseas Filipino workers.
The laws, he said, are manifestations of the administration’s effort to give back to the people the taxes it collected.
Andanar also pitched to the 3,500 Liga convention participants, headed by their provincial president Nolie Caña, the administration’s peace and order effort.
“Our president continues to enjoy 82 percent approval rating and 76 percent trust rating because he is able to deliver his 2016 campaign promise against (illegal) drugs,” he said.
He added that Duterte’s campaign promise against corruption has also made strides with Transparency International improving the country’s corruption index to 12 points, the highest since 2013. (PNA)
