Tacloban City”•Eastern Samar has become a benchmark for the provincial government of Agusan del Norte following the performance of the former’s hospital operations.
“We also have seen your LGU’s tenacity in facing them as seen in the performance of your LGU and provincial hospital… specifically the pharmacy operations,” said Agusan del Norte Gov. Maria Angelica Amante Matba.
“We will greatly appreciate to talk with your people, to learn from them, gain insights from the encounter, and comeback to our province enriched with the experience of having shared some learning time with you. We will forever grateful for accommodating our request,” Matba said in a letter to Eastern Samar Gov. Marcelo Picardal.
Seeing the “significant number of similarities in the challenges” of the two provinces, the Agusan governor asked her counterpart for a benchmarking activity on April 11 to 12.
Matba said they will be sending one board member, five heads of offices, and three officers from the Provincial Governor’s Office, Sangguniang Panlalawigan, Provincial General Services Office, Provincial Budget Office, Provincial Accounting Office, Provincial Planning and Development Office, and Provincial Hospital.
They will be visiting Eastern Samar Capitol and meet with the provincial accountant, general services head, hospital administrator and provincial health officer “to learn from your processes and mechanisms to meet these challenges and how were you able to make the most of the opportunities around you,” Matba said.
The Eastern Samar government reported that it had collected a total of P164,007,151.22 as of December 2018, exceeding its P100-million take in 2017.
Provincial Administrator George Erroba said the increase in their hospital collection “is the result of Picardal’s mechanism to ensure efficient delivery of government services to our constituents.”
“This includes the full implementation of ‘No Balance Billing’ policy and the establishment of Provincial Governor’s Office in the hospitals to regain the trust of the public in terms of the services of the health care facilities in the province,” he said.
As one of poorest provinces in the country, Eastern Samar embarked on a development program dubbed as “Proyekto 25” to lower its poverty incidence of 46.3% to 25%.
The province is now focusing on its health, tourism, good governance, and agri-fishery development.
