AGRARIAN Reform Secretary Conrado Estrella III has sought the assistance of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. to include the agrarian reform beneficiaries (ARBs) as recipients of the Department of Health’s (DOH) Medical Assistance for Indigent Patients (MAIP) program.
MAIP is a DOH program that provides medical assistance for poor patients in the country seeking consultation, rehabilitation, examination, or confinement in government hospitals.
Estrella said that this is part of the 9-point priority areas identified by the DAR, in response to the call of the President to continue the agrarian reform program and focus on the needs of the farmers nationwide.
“Aside from providing solutions to the problems in the security of land tenure, agrarian justice delivery, and provision of support services, we are also taking into consideration the other burdens being carried out by the ARBs,” Estrella said.
Estrella said the DAR also needs to address the medical concerns of the ARBs since most of them belong to the marginalized sector of society.
“Farmers usually resort to borrowing money each time one of their family members got sick. Comprehensive support from the DAR and other national agencies is required to ease this kind of burdens that the farmers are carrying,” Estrella noted.
EstrelIa emphasized that he has already proposed in one of the Cabinet meetings with the President, to include in the DOH coverage the ARBs as recipients of the MAIP and assured the ARBs that they will be included in the said program by 2023.
