Her first bill

By: Limuel Celebria

FOR HER first bill, Iloilo City’s first lady representative filed HB 909 calling for an increase in the bed capacity of the perennially over-crowded West Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao district.

The bill, which also called for an appropriate increase in budget and personnel for the regional hospital, was filed by Congw. Julienne “Jam” Baronda last July 2, 2019 or just a day after her term of office officially began.

The bill now awaits approval at the plenary session after it was approved last Monday by the House of Representative Committee on Health. The bill could have moved up the legislative mill a bit faster but it got bumped by the more pressing House deliberations on the national budget for next year.

Formerly Iloilo’s provincial hospital, WVMC currently has a bed capacity of 425 which can sometimes be expanded up to 592, in case of emergencies and outbreaks of various diseases. The bill increases bed capacity to 700.

The hospital serves the medical and emergency needs of all Ilonggos, not only from the city and province of Iloilo but even the people of the rest of Panay. The recent outbreak of dengue, which has hit Iloilo the hardest, again saw the hospital filled to the brim with patients coming from all over.

“As the only DOH-retained tertiary teaching training medical center in Panay, patients go to Western [Visayas Medical Center] for expert medical care. And this leads to overcapacity. Patients spill over to the corridors,” Baronda told the committee.

But to say that Baronda’s Bill is timely will be quite an understatement. The WVMC upgrade, not just in terms of patient accommodation but also in terms of equipment and services, has been long in coming.

Hospital Chief, Dr. Joseph Dean Nicolo, said WVMC is envisioned to become “a multispecialty center in the region to provide specialty services for heart, lung, kidney, brain, cancer and geriatrics. “

He stressed:  “Statistics shows that the services of the WVMC keep on increasing and this trend continues to skyrocket as the health care needs will always be the top priority.”

Baronda’s elation over the bill hurdling its first legislative challenge cannot be contained. “I am so happy because I vowed to work for the health of the people of Iloilo City.”

“This bill is a fulfillment of that promise,” she added. “This will not only benefit the residents of Iloilo City but the people of the entire Panay Island.”

It will be recalled that, in the recent local elections, Baronda campaigned on a platform of HOPE or Health, Obra (jobs), Peace and Order and Education. It would seem that the trust bestowed on her by the Ilonggo electorate was not misplaced.

Admittedly, Congw. Jam Baronda has a long ways to go to prove her worth as a legislator. But, honed by years of experience in the halls of the Senate as political officer Senator JV Ejercito, the lovely lass who started her political career as a wide-eyed Sangguniang Kabataan leader, is showing she has learned how to rub elbows with those who wield power and horse-trade with the best of them.

Baronda is a member of quite a number of House Committees: Agriculture and Food; Bases Conversion, Climate Change; Ecology; Economic Affairs; Energy; Foreign Affairs; Information and Communications Technology; Interparliamentary Relations and Diplomacy; Legislative Franchises; Natural Resources; Trade and Industry; Visayas Development; and Rules.

In a rare instance for newbie solons, she was named Vice Chair of the Committee on Transportation.

Why? Who would ever think that as a neophyte solon she would be appointed Assistant Majority Floor Leader? I bet no other Ilonggo congressman before her has achieved this during their first three months in office.