Pamintuan asks Lazatin: Don’t exploit the sick

ANGELES CITY–A top official from this city asked Pampanga First District Representative Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin not to “politically exploit sick people.”
City Administrator Dennis Albert Pamintuan was referring to the case of Ronalyn Dayrit, a former patient at the Rafael Lazatin Memorial Medical Center (RLMMC), whom the Lazatin camp said was not given discount despite a guarantee letter from the solon.
“Congressman Lazatin need not exploit the sick. There is no need for a guarantee letter from him. The city government took care of Ms. Dayrit. Because she is classified as an indigent, we gave her a hefty discount,” Pamintuan said.
According to records of the RLMMC (formerly Ospital Ning Angeles), Dayrit only paid P500 out of her total bill of P4,877.
“For us, the important thing is, the patient was given all the assistance she needed whether it came from this administration or from Lazatin’s camp,” Pamintuan said.
Pamintuan added that they did not utilize the P500,000 pork barrel of Congressman Lazatin allocated for RLMMC because there was no memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the solon and the city government.
“We did not touch the P500,000 allocation from Lazatin’s pork barrel supposedly for [RLMMC] because there was no MOA between him and city hall for the disposition of the funds. Technically, we can use the funds without Lazatin’s go signal, but we wanted clear cut guidelines for its use,” he said.
Pamintuan admitted Lazatin wrote the city government on July 24, 2012 informing of the issuance of a notice of cash allocation (NCA) in the name of the city government.
“I personally informed Lazatin’s staff that they should prepare a MOA covering the use of the allocation,” Pamintuan recalled adding that, “No one pursued it on their part. Now they are making a big issue out of it.”
According to him, the city accountant also raised the need of a MOA for the liquidation of the funds.
“It is quite clear that Lazatin and his ilk are exploiting every opportunity to score political points. However, this is again a cheap shot, as most of their accusations against the administration of Mayor Pamintuan,” Pamintuan said.
However, Lazatin’s Chief of Staff Calaguas said Pamintuan’s statement is “illogical.”
“Why would you ask the patient to pay P3,000 if, in the first place, the patient was presenting a guarantee letter which seeks to pay for the entire hospital bill?” Calaguas asked, “What kind of public service is that?”
“The point here is they refused the guarantee letter that will pay for the entire bill of P4,877 and instead asked an indigent patient to pay P500, as claimed by Atty. Pamintuan. Regardless of the discount they gave her, for an indigent patient, the difference between having your entire hospital bill lifted and having to pay P500 is very big.”
Calaguas added that the patient paid P3,000 and not P500.
The Lazatin camp said that they forwarded a letter dated July 24, 2012 to the office of Mayor Pamintuan which not only included details on the issuance of an NCA but also asked the Office of the Mayor for a checklist of requirements for the MOA signing.
A member of Lazatin’s staff coordinated last July with RLMMC Director Dr. Antonio Dizon and submitted a copy of the MOA, however, the staff was informed by Dr. Dizon that the MOA must be signed by Mayor Pamintuan. Lazatin’s office then decided to write a formal letter to the mayor but never received a reply.
“If they’re talking about public service, then with or without MOA they should accept the guarantee letter because the P500,000 fund from Congressman Lazatin’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) is already credited on the account of the Angeles City Government,” Calaguas said.
http://www.headlinegl.com/pamintuan-asks-lazatin-dont-exploit-the-sick/