TALKING POINTS FOR #CitizensInHealth
13 June 2020, 4:00 – 5:30 PM
 While COVID-19 is primarily a health issue, it also has
social and economic impacts. Our job as a local
government is to mitigate these impacts so that the
people will not only be safe in our province, but also
continue to have a semblance of a normal life. This
also is on top of our constant efforts to carry out
programs that will address the main problems we face:
poverty, inequality, and underdevelopment.
 Doc Jillian of our Provincial Health Office discussed our
efforts in the health and medical front, which is, of
course, our primary response. But complementary to
these initiatives, we made sure that we are able to tap
on the various skills and talents of our different
departments in the Capitol. We have several offices
working with the PHO in ensuring that our people are
healthy and safe from COVID-19. This means that the
prevention mechanisms are not only matters
concerning public health, but also several domains,
specifically, policymaking, communications, human
resources management, community organizing, law
enforcement, social work, agriculture and food
security, and economic empowerment.
So you can see, there is a lot to do, which means that
you need to have a government, a central command
that can manage all of these to ensure that the
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consolidated response of the province against COVID19 is effective and efficient.
 As Governor, I wear several hats as the Chairperson of
our Inter-Agency Task Force. I am a lawyer, so I apply
my knowledge of the law in crafting policy. I am also
an alternative lawyer, meaning I handle cases
involving marginalized sectors. And this provides me
with the lens to look at our responses and their effects
to the most vulnerable in our province. I am a
graduate of political science—this allows me to blend
theory and practice when it comes to not only
governance, but also managing the dynamics of power
among local government units and the people. Before
entering politics, I was community organizer, which
enables me to employ concepts and practices that I
have used in the grassroots, particularly, people’s
participation in governance and the empowerment of
barangays through the formation of people’s
organizations. Minsan, bilang chef, nagluluto rin po ako
para sa mga frontliner at mga Municipal Care and
Containment Centers namin.
 We have a diverse and formidable team in the
Provincial Capitol. They manage different offices with
different tasks. Our PHO, Dr. Jillian Lee, who is an
alumna of the Doctor to the Barrios program, was
previously the Municipal Health Officer of a small town
here in Dinagat Islands. Her experience enables her to
relate with the people at the grassroots. We are very
lucky that she decided to stay in Dinagat after her
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DTTB assignment ended. She know manages our
Emergency Operations Center that we activated in
February, long before the first reporting of local
transmission in the country.
 Our Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and
Management Office acts as the secretariat of our task
force. Its head has experience in crisis management,
which allows us to have an organized frontline with
proper staffing, including first responders.
 Our Provincial Information Officer, Jeff, who is right
here with us, is a sociology graduate and activist. He
was part of my congressional staff before and we
worked together in legislative battles where he
supplied the communications aspect of our campaigns
His background gives him the skills to ensure that
communicating COVID-19-related information is based
on facts, not on fear, and can be easily understood by
the people through the several media platforms in the
Capitol. We have Facebook, we have a radio station,
and we even have a cable television channel. And we
make sure that we utilize all of them in order to reach
out to citizens.
Our information campaign is not just simply about
posting figures and issuances. We make sure that
people are not only aware. We want them to
appreciate certain concepts and build their
fundamental values. We explain to them the scientific
concepts related to COVID-19 and testing. We talk
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about what stigma is and why we must not
discriminate.
 Our Provincial Legal Officer has worked with me since
my days in civil society. We were part of BALAOD
Mindanaw, an alternative law organization that I
founded before entering politics. Our PLO, because of
his background in lawyering for the marginalized and
disempowered, is skilled in crafting policy that takes
into consideration the effects of each provision to the
people of Dinagat. Here in our province, it is difficult
for us to simply apply everything that the National
IATF cascades down to us. There are provisions in
national guidelines that aren’t really applicable to our
setting as an island province. So I sit down with our
PLO and our other officials in drafting policies that
would adjust national directives to ensure that they
can be enforced in our context.
These are only some of the people I work with in our
IATF. They have diverse backgrounds, experiences,
and disciplines. While I believe that doctors should be
at the front and center of our response efforts, I also
think that it is important for us to tap into the diversity
of lenses and skills at our disposal.
 Our Community Affairs Officer and Provincial
Agriculturist handles the operations of our fish coupon
program, which provides discounts for buyers and
subsidy for fisherfolk. We have organized our fisherfolk
here to involve them in our food security initiatives.
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Since we have limited trips to the Caraga mainland, we
want to make sure that we won’t have a scarcity of
food. Our fishermen are our frontliners in this side of
the battle.
Our Provincial Agriculturist also manages the
distribution of seedlings for home gardeners. This
seeks to empower household to eat and even make
money out of food that they produce.
 Our Social Welfare and Development Officer is in
charge of organizing our women and PWDs in
communities. They are also given financial grants and
in exchange, they produce facemasks for our
frontliners and their fellow citizens. We don’t believe in
mere dole-outs. Through our empowerment programs,
we don’t just hand out cash—we involve our people.
This is why our hashtag in our COVID-19 response is
#OurCommunitiesOurFrontline.
 Our Cooperative Development Officer leads in our
efforts to reignite our local economy. We have
strengthened our usual “tabo” or makeshift temporary
markets by involving more people, even online sellers,
to encourage our people to buy local and help our
small businesses, including farmers and fisherfolk.
 In Dinagat Islands, as we battle against COVID-19, we
make sure that we don’t only have a formidable and
talented team. We also want our response to always
be human rights-based—from policymaking to
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implementation. As we ensure the right to health, we
want people to enjoy the right to food, the right to
information, and the freedom of movement.
 I believe that discussions like what we are having now
are important. It shows people that there are so many
layers in government work especially during times of
crisis. We need doctors and medical practitioners to
create a primary response, but we also need to fill
several gaps. To guarantee an effective and efficient
strategy against COVID-19, we must have actors who
have backgrounds in law, community organizing,
information and communications, disaster response,
law enforcement, and many others. Whatever your
discipline is, you will always have a position to fill; you
will always have an important role. And this includes
our citizens. It is not only up to us in government. We
need the people—we need them to be equipped with
the consiousness that they, too, have the responsibility
to act. They are not mere beneficiaries. They are
stakeholders. They are participants. Sabi ko nga parati
rito sa Dinagat Islands, walang maliit, walang malayo,
lahat mahalaga.
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