Parliament vows to address BARMM health ministry 'fund issues'

COTABATO CITY — Officials of the Bangsamoro health ministry have committed to address fiscal issues besetting their workforce, one of which is the delayed payment of salaries of field workers due to various constraints.

The chairperson of the health committee of the Bangsamoro parliament, the physician Kadil Sinolinding, Jr., on Wednesday said that he is thankful to the officials of the Ministry of Health, among them Minister Rizaldy Piang, for having assured, during a dialogue Monday, to focus attention on complaints of employees involved in community works in far-flung areas about delayed salaries that has been hitting the news for weeks now.

The hearing about the concerns confronting the MoH was held in a function facility in Cotabacto City of the 80-seat parliament of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, also known as the Bangsamoro Transition Authority.

“Our purpose here is noble, not to attack and put them in bad light, but iron out these issues in the context of diplomacy and cooperation and teamwork,” Sinolinding, former regional health secretary of the now defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said.

The regional parliament’s Information and Communications Group had confirmed in a statement on Wednesday that MoH officials promised to focus attention on complaints about delayed salaries of health workers that reportedly started about four months ago.

The hearing also delved on improving the process of distributing the regional government’s health emergency allowance for beneficiaries and the utilization of vaccines against various diseases and the medical supplies procured with MoH funds.

Sinolinding said that the health services of the MoH is "considerably tough” owing to the distance of most of the 118 towns across BARMM’s six provinces to the ministry’s provincial offices and the Bangsamoro regional capitol in this city.

The scattered island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, beset with lack of sea transportation and telecommunications facilities, are among the areas being served by MoH.