Guingona’s visit inspires Malasiqui folk

By Virgilio Sar. Maganes

MALASIQUI- Senator Teofisto ” TJ” Guingona III endeared himself to the people of this town particularly the village officials, village health workers and senior citizens when he visited last June 18.
Guingona, Senate chair of the committee on health and blue ribbon, was accompanied by Abono Partylist Chair Rosendo O. So. He paid a courtesy call to Mayor Armando Domantay Sr. before proceeding to the Arenas Civic Center where a simple program was held.
Mayor Domantay expressed his gratitude to Senator Guingona for the visit and promised his all out support for his re-election bid as senator in 2016 elections.
Guingona informed the crowd that he was the author of the free-Philhealth coverage of all senior citizens in the country, which took effect on November 2014.
” When I sponsored the law, I asked the management of Philhealth how many Filipinos we have in the country and the answer was 100 million. When I asked how many senior citizens we have, they said 6 million. Compared to the total population, we have only small population of senior citizens that’s why I requested them to fund the free-Philhealth coverage,” Guingona said.
He said the law was a gesture of acknowledging the contributions of the senior citizens in the country particularly their sacrifices in raising their families and their services in their communities.
Guingona also said he has a pending bill in the Senate House that will provide retirement benefits to all village officials in the country- barangay captains, barangay kagawads, barangay secretaries, barangay treasurers, barangay health workers (BHWs), members of the Lupong Tagapamayapa and day care workers.

“This bill has been co-authored by all senators that will provide village officials retirement benefits. The retirement funds will come from the 1% of national Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA). We know the sacrifices of village officials and other workers as they are in the front lines of providing basic services to the people in the countryside,” Guingona said.
He further said another bill that is pending in the Senate is the extension of terms of village heads and village legislators (barangay captains and barangay kagawads) to six years.
” We are currently working with Fred Abesamis of Nueva Ecija, the national president of Liga ng mga Barangay, and hopefully this will be passed in the Congress,” Guingona said.
Guingona also visited the towns of Umingan, Calasiao and the cities of San Carlos and Dagupan.