Battling disinformation in Negros Or.
While visiting a remote mountain barangay in Negros Oriental, Congresswoman (and LP candidate for governor) Jocelyn “Josy” Sy-Limkaichong talked with the mother of a young child who told her that the child had missed her last two immunizations because her husband had forbidden it. “The mother told me that her husband was scared to bring the child to the health center because, he claimed, under the RH Law, once the health personnel found out that this was their sixth child, they would take the child from them and put her up for adoption.”
Guests at the media forum Bulong Pulungan sa Sofitel gasped at the enormity of such disinformation, and its potentially tragic consequences both for the child and the parents. “When I told her that there was no such provision in the RH Law, the mother said she was bringing her child to the health center the very next day,” said the gubernatorial candidate.
Another time, talking with a senior citizen, Limkaichong found out that the older folks in the town were running scared “because they were told that under the RH Law, government health workers could put to death anyone who was too old or too ill.”
Countering misconceptions and disinformation about the Reproductive Health Law is just part of the challenges Limkaichong faces in her uphill battle for governor of Negros Oriental. Aside from being potentially the first woman governor of the province (before now, she was the first congresswoman of Negros Oriental, and the first woman mayor of the town of La Libertad), Josy is also the only congressional representative from the region (which includes Cebu, Siquijor and Negros Occidental) who voted in favor of the RH bill. Thus, she has become a target of opponents of reproductive health, particularly of Catholic bishops and clergy, who have been singling her out in their Sunday homilies.
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It’s fortunate, then, that Limkaichong’s running mate is a medical doctor, orthopedic surgeon Mark Macias, who has a political lineage (his father was the late Gov. Emilio Macias) but who is trying out the political waters for the first time.
Aside from having the medical and health credentials to counter disinformation about the RH measure, Macias says he plans to concentrate on improving the health situation in Negros Oriental. Calling himself an “accidental politician,” Macias says that while medical practice allowed him “to help one person at a time,” as a government official, “I can help a lot more people.”
The doctor left a lucrative practice in Manila and set up a practice in the province soon after his father’s passing, although he had made it a point to go home and conduct weekly clinics even before this. “There is a lot of fixing to do,” he observed on the overall health and economic situation in Negros Oriental.
In neighboring Siquijor, another doctor, obstetrician-gynecologist Joey Pernes, is also trying his hand at politics for the first time, running for congressman under the LP banner. “This is my first press conference,” he confessed to the media forum.
Battling an entrenched dynasty in Siquijor, Pernes says he would like to concentrate on lifting the economy in the island-province, which he says has rich potential for tourism. “There is a 90-percent unemployment and underemployment rate in Siquijor, with 55 percent of the population classified as poor, 40 percent of whom lives below the hunger line,” he observed. If and when he wins, Pernes would truly face a daunting challenge.
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The many controversies that hounded her in her early days in office may have ebbed by now, but LTO (Land Transportation Office) chief Virginia Torres still has her plate full of difficult decisions.
She has to deal with powerful and moneyed interests, who in the past two years or so mounted a noisy public relations campaign against her. But this “kabarilan” of P-Noy has stuck to her guns (hopefully not literally), and the news she shared with the media is that the reforms the administration instituted are now bearing fruit.
One of these reforms is a change in supplier of car plates, which in the past were easily faked, replaceable, and of poor quality. The new car plate design, she said, would provide for “better identification through security features and a standardized design.” It also comes with a “plate lock” which, if tampered with, would damage the entire plate. The lock is meant to prevent tampering and/or replacement of the plates, a common enough tactic among car theft syndicates, as well as of criminals who rely on getaway vehicles. “These new plates should be available by June,” Torres assured.
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The LTO, said Torres, is also launching a renewed campaign to get vehicle owners to carry and use reflectorized early warning devices (EWDs).
“This is a mandatory accessory,” she reiterated, even if until recently most motorists were rather blasé about carrying such devices. Now the LTO, said Torres, will be implementing strictly the P150-penalty for “failure to carry” an EWD, which, she observes, “the public seems to have forgotten already.”
Also part of the LTO’s public information campaign, Torres added, is the drive to accredit and license “proper” motorcycle helmets, which need a sticker issued by the Department of Trade and Industry before they can be sold or used by motorcycle riders.
Checking the safety of helmets is no small matter; Torres says the two-wheeled vehicles currently make up 53 percent of all registered vehicles in the country and, probably, in my view, the majority of road collisions and accidents, with often tragic consequences. The LTO, said Torres, is helping the DTI verify the ICC stickers on helmets, since some, she says, were simply torn off boxes of imported Christmas lights.
