House OKs Malasakit Center bill on final reading

The House of Representatives on Monday approved on third and final reading the measure seeking to establish the Malasakit Program and institutionalize Malasakit Centers in hospitals.

With 185 lawmakers voting for it, one against, and seven abstentions, the chamber approved House Bill 5477, or the proposed "Malasakit Program Act," meant to complement the objectives of the Universal Healthcare Law.

Under the bill, Malasakit Centers would be created to serve as a one-stop shop for all medical and financial assistance to indigent and poor patients, putting in one center all government agencies presently involved in giving these assistance.

Malasakit Centers would also serve as health care processing centers for patient assistance and referral to provide much needed system support for patient navigation under the Universal Health Care (UHC) Law.

The Malasakit Center is the brainchild of former Special Assistant to the President now Senator Bong Go.

A total of 49 Malasakit Centers have been opened in various hospitals in the country at present.

Malasakit Centers were meant to be "non-partisan, convenient, free of charge, accessible," and have a "standard system of availment of assistance."

Lagman votes no

However, Albay Representative Edcel Lagman, the only representative to vote against the measure, argued that institutionalizing Malasakit Centers would not erase their "partisan origin," which he said helped Go's Senate run.

Lagman added that Malasakit Centers duplicated some of the functions being performed by the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation and the DOH.

He added that the approved Malasakit Center bill, which was only a substitute to the original version of the House Committee on Health's, was not ready for third reading.

He claimed that the substitute bill was a "carbon copy" of the measure approved by the Senate, and it was introduced in the plenary even without the approval from the House Committee on Health.

House members were also not given enough time to peruse the substitute bill, and no member on the floor was recognized to introduce individual amendments or question the absence of a forum during the measure's second reading approval, Lagman said.

"It is bad enough when a bill is approved by a tyranny of numbers over the ascendancy of reason, but it is worse when a bill is deemed approved by a paucity of numbers in derogation of parliamentary rules," he added.

Lagman had long been critical of Malasakit Centers, arguing that these were partisan fronts.

He said Malasakit Centers are not “one-stop” shops for post-confinement financial assistance but merely referral outlets to the main local offices of participating government agencies.

He added that patients availing services from Malasakit Centers to get in long queues “because the representatives in the centers do not have the authority nor discretion to make assessments either for partial or full payment of hospital bill balances.”

Go defended his brainchild, countering that Malasakit Centers were meant to help the poor and not the politicians who want to improve their public image.

"Prangkahin ko na rin po kayo, your image is beyond repair. Hindi po ikakaayos ng pagmumukha ninyo ang pagkontra ninyo sa interes ng mga Pilipino," Go claimed. — DVM, GMA News