MORE NEWS, MOUNTAIN PROVINCE

Pregnant women given free hospital services
BY ROGER SACYATEN

BONTOC, Mountain Province – Pregnant women here are more fortunate than their peers in other parts of the country as they don’t have to pay hospital services when they give birth.

Gov. Maximo B. Dalog has issued Executive Order 30 dated August 21, “exempting birthing mothers from payment of all hospital services while confined in one of the hospitals under the operation and management control of the provincial government of Mountain Province.”

There are three district hospitals in the province located in the towns of Barlig, Besao, and Paracelis. The Bontoc General Hospital is located in the central capital town.

The issuance of the EO was prompted by the reported four maternal deaths during a meeting of the provincial health board.

It was learned there was one death of birthing mothers each in the municipalities of Sadanga, Sagada, Tadian, and Paracelis from January to July.

“Poverty must not be an excuse for the death of a birthing mother,” Dalog said in issuing the EO.

He said some reasons cited why birthing mothers didn’t avail of hospital services was they didn’t have money to pay hospital bills.

To reduce death of mothers due to delivery, Dalog urged municipal mayors to also come up with similar measures to cover municipal health facilities.

Certain exceptions and limitations were stipulated by the EO. Philhealth members would not be covered by the executive order.

Exempted also from the coverage were birthing mother patients who opted to stay at the private rooms or “de luxe rooms” of hospitals during their confinement.

Gov. Dalog earlier issued EO No. 16, series 2006, mandating all pregnant women to undergo pre-natal check-ups and for health workers to assist during births.

In certain places in the province pregnant women reportedly didn’t avail of health services even if available for unexplained reasons.

This has led to many unwanted incidents from ectopic to fatal deaths. Docotors said pre-natal check
ups were necessary to safeguard health of the mothers.

In related developments, a paging system was installed in the Bontoc General Hospital to be used in locating hospital personnel during emergency cases.

The hospital, now with major departments located in buildings within the hospital compound, needed the paging system for convenience.


Misty, cold Kadaclan now Koreans’ prayer mountain
BY DIONNE CHUNGALAN

BARLIG, Mountain Province – Kadaclan dubbed ‘Shangri-la on the edge’ is a woodland hamlet here that has become a prayer mountain of Korean visitors.

For the past five years, many Korean church pastors, students, physicians and artists have been flocking to the village to relish its untainted nature, beauty, climate and simple lifestyle of friendly folk.

Recently, 18 Koreans straight from Seoul went to Kadaclan and stayed for a week. Another batch of 15 came last July 28.

This was spearheaded by Pastor Shin Myung Gun, a missionary who is now constructing a Korean Baptist Church at Sitio Ogo-og, here.

Pastor Peck Charog, an accompanying Church leader of the Touch Christian Fellowship (TCF) coordinated the coming of the Koreans from Baguio to Kadaclan.

Come September, Pastor Lee Jung Hang of the Korea Baptist Foreign Mission Board with some church elders will visit Kadaclan for appraisal of their prayer mountain projects.

By January 2008, Julie Barcelona, a botanist with her Dutch husband vowed to dwell in one of the cottages of the Homestay, a lodging establishment of native huts.

Hiroe Kanetsugu and Takashi also wrote this writer they would bring 15 Japanese nationals for a two-week educational trip March next year.

Over the years, this rustic village came to be known and since then, visitors of mixed races have come and gone, awed by its simple and easy lifestyle.

With its breathtaking scenery, abundant clouds, nippy and misty dawn and starry nights, visitors have described Kadaclan as “close to the gods..”

Tourists and villagers have often said concerned agencies should include not so popular tourism sites like Kadaclan in their eco-development plans.

Kadaclan is the counterpart of Sagada in the west being strategically located in the east of the province where the sun shines in splendor amidst its thick foggy forests