Found your cash?

By Egay Uy

WHILE I was consulting with my physicians about problems in my system some two months ago, my wife Juliet also had to undergo tests related to some lumps in her neck. Indeed the ultrasound result showed at least four lumps so we had to have it checked by a doctor at one of the older medical centers in town.

To our dismay, the doctor, upon seeing the ultrasound result, immediately said, “Cancerous man ni, kinahanglan operahan.” We were taken aback, to say the least. How can somebody in that profession be so callous to utter those words into our faces? To myself, I immediately thought, “Ha? Kulang ka’g cash?”

A friendlier, no the friendliest, doctor we went to later agreed to have the lumps subjected to FNAB procedure (fine needle aspiration biopsy) to be sure. True enough, and to our relief, the result of the FNAB reads BENIGN.

I’m still wondering if the first doctor already found her cash from somebody else.

***

Despite difficulty in scaling stairs yet, I had to attend a meeting on Wednesday at the Trade and Investments Promotions Office of the city government to discuss the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Delivery of Government Services Act of 2018 (EODB EDGS) and the recently-issued DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2019-177 on the issuance of barangay clearances. 

I had to because that was a follow-through of the earlier meetings we already had among regulatory offices regarding requirements related to business permit applications, and the processes that have to be improved, the notices to the business sector that should be disseminated, and the basics of public service that have to be inculcated in the minds of front liners and group leaders vis-à-vis Citizens Charter that is required under the EODB which dramatically amends the Anti-Red Tape Act.

One new feature of the EODB is the integration of the issuance of barangay clearances in the business permit application process. More importantly to me, though is the well-defined role and responsibility of the barangay officials in the entire process, failing in which could subject them to administrative, or even criminal, liability.

That there is still much to be done – by the city government, and by the barangay government – is a given. It is also good to know that the DILG has taken a more active role in keeping barangays on their toes.

(Egay Uy is a lawyer. He chairs the City’s Regulatory and Complaint Board, co-chairs with the city mayor the City Price Coordinating Council, and chairs the city’s Joint Inspection Team.  He retired as a vice president of Cepalco.)