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Esther Amores-Roque, the secretary to the mayor, said most of the recipients belong to the poorest of the poor, including the town’s indigenous people.
Roque said this is the second time that the local government unit distributed PhilHealth cards to poor constituents as 500 indigent beneficiaries also received their PhilHealth cards last July.
Piñol has allocated P1.2 million from the 20-percent economic development fund for the Medicare Para Sa Masa program in 2005.
“We want to assure our poorest of the poor and indigenous people constituents in Magpet that your government is doing its best to address your medical needs,” the mayor said in his radio program “Ang Magpeteño.”
The North Cotabato provincial government and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo have also given their counterpart to the Medicare program, allotting funds for the additional 1000 beneficiaries of the town’s PhilHealth program.
Roque said the Municipal Social Welfare and Development (MSWD) office is still in the process of determining the qualified beneficiaries for the additional Medicare program for the poor in the far-flung areas.
Piñol has also pledged to enroll all his indigent constituents and the indigenous people in the Cotabato Health Insurance Program (CHIP) which would be implemented in 2007 by the provincial government of North Cotabato.