The City Government of San Fernando headed by Mayor Edwin “EdSa” Santiago signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) for providing health insurance to the City Government of San Fernando job order employees on October 19 at the Pampanga Provincial Capitol.
This is in compliance to the PhilHealth Circular no. 2017-008 which states that all directly-hired jobs and project-based contractors in the national or local government should be covered by PhilHealth.
More than 300 job order employees in the City of San Fernando were officially PhilHealth members. Since January 2014 the local government of San Fernando was already giving PhilHealth benefits to their job order employees. Their share in the contributions is being deducted on their salary every month for the PhilHealth premium of P600 quarterly or P200 per month.
In his welcome remarks, PhilHealth Region 3 Vice President Walter Bacareza stressed the importance of giving health benefits to employees. He said that illnesses may happen anytime, that is why their main goal is to ensure the health of everyone through social health insurance.
“Ang PhilHealth ay laging nakaalalay upang magbigay ng healthcare benefits sa lahat ng miyembro nito, regardless kung mahirap, bata or jobless ka man, ay malaking tulong ito sa bawat lahat,” Bacareza said.
In an interview, Mayor Edwin “EdSa” Santiago said that employee’s health provides benefits such as increased productivity of employee and improves their morale and motivation.
“Kapag ang isang empleyado ay malusog ang pangangatawan ay siguradong malusog din ang kanyang mental na aspeto kaya naman kaya niyang harapin ang kanyang tungkulin sa araw-araw na isa din itong kanilang kontribusyon sa pag-asenso ng lipunan. Kaya naman dito sa Syudad San Fernando ay gusto natin na ang lahat ng manggagawa ay protektado at sigurado ang kanilang kalusugan,” Santiago said.