When I met Sta. Bayabas
No, Santa Bayabas is not a saint. It’s an abbreviation of three places in the third district of Negros Oriental who have forged an agreement to closely cooperate with each other.
These places are Sta. Catalina, Bayawan City, and Basay.
One of the avenues of cooperation is the health system in the area, this is why last October 20, 2010 (Wednesday) I went to Bayawan City.
Honorable Third District Board Member Peve Ligan (LAKAS), who chairs the Sta. Bayabas Inter-Local Health Zone Board, invited me to join the consultative meeting of the board, which hoped to tackle different issues affecting the delivery of health services in the district.
Many issues came up and I was happy to inform them of the 12.5 million peso grant given by the Department of Health for the construction of new facilities for Bayawan District Hospital.
When I revealed the information I was surprised that even though this information had been going around for quite sometime, most of the members of the board were not aware of it, including the hospital administrator who raised the issue on the need for new facilities.
Bayawan District Hospital serves these three places, although as the Chair of the Committee on Health of Bayawan City pointed out, 80 percent of the hospital’s patients come from Bayawan City per se.
My challenge to the Sta. Bayabas Inter-Local Health Zone Board now is for them to first dig into the ownership issue of the land on which the hospital stands. Apparently, no one knows where the documents for the land are, which can be very compromising. When this is settled, we can talk of more development.
I left early and didn’t actually finish the meeting since I have prior commitments in Dumaguete City, which is a three-hour drive from Bayawan City.
To the people of Bayawan City and the members of the Sta. Bayabas ILHZ Board, thank you for the warm welcome.
With Bayawan City Mayor, Rene Gaudiel
punto de vista 