Page 25 - Outstanding Awards 2021

OUTSTANDING CONGRESSMAN AWARD 2021

AkO BICOL PARTyLIST REP. ELIzALDy S. CO, AkO BICOL PARTyLIST REP. ELIzALDy S. CO,
STATEmENT ON COVID-19 STATEmENT ON CLImATE CHANGE:
No country was prepared to face this pandemic. Climate Change is real, it is fact! Strong typhoons with their
Parenthetically, almost all of the health systems were ill concomitant loss of lives, damage to infrastructures, destruction
prepared. The reality by which all countries were overwhelmed to livelihoods and crops have visited the country almost annually
is to date fact. On that ground Ako Bicol Party-list, looks since Yolanda in 2013 and most recently, super typhoon Rolly
towards a health system with the capacity to be alert and and Ulysses having caused severe sufferings among Filipino
flexible to deal with COVID-19 and its possible mutations. It is victims. To experience higher temperature and for longer
also our desire that at the same time it can sustain the essential periods is never unusual in almost all parts of the country. The
health services for the under privileged. Henceforth, this will occurrence of El Nino that causes draught is frequent and the
require confidence among the members of the communities total weather pattern has been changing.
and trust towards the health workers, the medical institutions,
and in placing health at the center of the country’s policies. It Most recently, I authored together with fellow my Ako Bicol
is important that these should be at same time balance with Partylist Rep. Alfredo A. Garbin, Jr., House Bill No. 8425 known
the economic agenda of the government. as, “An Act Providing for the Typhoon Resilient, Core Shelter
Assistance (CSA) and School Buildings in Typhoon Belt Areas
This pandemic created a situation that needs efficient health in Eastern Seaboards of the Philippines.”
systems and sustainable investments and mechanisms to
protect every community. Our individual and the collective
response in cooperation with the government policies to control
and prevent the spread of infections for the future should not
only be the ultimate goal, but more importantly to recover from
it in stronger way, and to build the resilient health systems
we need. To be more emphatic; “it should be executed with a
sustainable economy for the reason that attainment of such
goal needs financial freedom”.

We are now before an unprecedented opportunity since
strengthening the health system is now at the center of each
international, governmental and economic agenda. To translate
this opportunity into tangible gains by way of improving the
health and well-being of our constituents and at the same
time uplift their respective financial standing must be the end
result. “My vision for the Philippines and Bicolandia, is to obtain
a culture of health juxtaposition with strong economy. In that
manner the people in the moments of crisis can be provided
with confidence both in health and financial condition”.

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