YES TO SEA AMBULANCES

YES TO SEA AMBULANCES I have received a lot of good feedback about my essay promoting sea ambulances. Among them is Dr. Bernardo Gochoco, a senior manager of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). As everyone knows, PCSO is one of the biggest donors of ambulance units in the Philippines, giving those to Local Government Units (LGUs) nationwide. Dr. Gochoco wrote to say that it says so in Republic Act 10121 that LGUs can use 5% of their Internal Revenue Allocations (IRAs) for the preemptive purchases of necessary goods and equipment. He also said that if these allocations are unused after a certain period these would revert to the LGU "Social Fund". I think that there could be a "conflict of interest" here because by simply not using their IRA allocations for necessary goods and equipment, they would have a ready source for their other projects which may have nothing to do with ambulances and other emergency equipment. Since this appears to be a classic case of a law that encourages the LGUs to shoot itself in the foot, the House of Representatives and the Senate should amend the law so that it will become very clear that the funds intended only for disaster response and emergency response are used only for those purposes, and not for some unrelated "social purposes". The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) was created by the Philippine Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 (RA 10121). Citing this law, Dr. Gochoco said that except for 5th Class municipalities, most LGUs would actually have the funds to buy ambulances, even if they buy one every year, because their IRAs are released every year. Just to be clear, I am urging all LGUs to purchase sea ambulances to be distributed to their island barangays, as well as their coastal barangays and their riverside barangays. I think that is not too much to ask, considering that they have the budget allocation for that anyway. As one of my readers wrote, these LGU officials should think about the safety of their own people first, and not what goes into their pockets. IKE SENERES/09-04-2024