TAGBILARAN CITY – The Region 7 office of the Department of Health (DoH 7) is set to aid some 51,000 indigent individuals in Central Visayas through enrolling them in the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth).

 DoH 7 Director Susan Madarieta said that inline with the National PhilHealth Registration Day (NPRD) Saturday, the department is encouraging indigents to take advantage of the program as it will provide them with medical aids.

Madarieta also said that aside from holding the registration activity in this city’s University of the Philippines Grounds, other sites in the region will also hold the same activity like in Tagbilaran City, Macias Sports Center in Dumaguete City, and at the Siquijor State College in Larena, Siquijor. (Phoebe Jen Indino)

Cebu Blog Site Winners Named

CEBU CITY – The Benedicto College Gazette bested other Cebu campus papers in winning the Blog Site contest conducted by Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart) in partnership with Sun Star Daily Cebu in celebration of Cebu Press Freedom Week. The campus publication team, which was represented by adviser Nicolas Ampatin, received a trophy and P20,000.

Cebu Normal University’s “Ang Suga” came in second with P15,000 while University of San Carlos’ “The Carolinian” came in third with P10,000. The Cebu Institute of Technology’s “Technologian Student Press” received a Smart Bro prepaid plug-it as consolation prize.

The contest sought to get the view of campus publications of Cebu’s public and private colleges and universities on whether a physical news room is still relevant to the new breed of journalists in the age of the Internet and social media.

Leyte, DENR Set Mining Meet

TACLOBAN CITY – Leyte Gov. Carlos Jericho Petilla and officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) are set to discuss mining activities that are taking place in the province of Leyte.

This is in the wake of calls made by the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) of Leyte through resolutions for the DENR and MGB offices to revoke the exploration permits granted to several companies here.

Petilla said there is a need to weigh the advantages and the effects of the mining activities and its impact on the economic as well as on the environmental situation of the province.

Leyte Board Member Roque Tiu, who heads the SP Committee on Environment, said they continue to await for the presence of DENR and MGB officials. (Jack Gadaingan)

Accreditation for Cebu Medical Labs

CEBU CITY – In a move to fast-track the development of Cebu’s medical tourism industry, the Region 7 office here of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI 7) is pushing for more medical laboratories to get accredited and improve the quality and credibility of the local health care services.

“If we want to effectively push Cebu as the ‘Health and Wellness Capita of Asia,’ then we must have to start somewhere, beginning with urging clinical laboratories to get accredited with the DTI,” said DTI 7 Asteria Caberte.

 Caberte said that the DTI’s Philippine Accreditation Office (PAO) has launched an accreditation scheme for medical laboratories to assess the quality of services provided by these medical facilities. (Malou Mozo)