Mother,caught in poll crossfire,dies in hospital

WHEN her mother died last March, 15-year-old Anabel Ragudo cried for two reasons. First, because she missed her mother, and second, because her dream of becoming a teacher seemed to be slipping out of her grasp. Her mother Lida Ragudo, 50, had been in and out of the Severo Verallo Memorial Hospital in Bogo City, until the doctors learned she had a lung infection, said Charmaine, 26, the third of seven Ragudo siblings. Worse, when they showed a Benhur Health Card in the hospital to have Lida treated, it was not honored allegedly because the funds for the card were already depleted. When her family brought her back to the hospital last March 6, Lida died within hours, said her 55-year-old husband Narciso Ragudo, a tanod in Barangay Langub, Kinatarcan island. Lida, too, had hailed from Kinatarcan Island in Sta. Fe town. Rep. Benhur Salimbangon (Cebu Province, fourth district) has accused Acting Gov. Agnes Magpale of blocking the release of funds for his health cards. So he stopped coursing his Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF) through the Capitol and instead sent it to the local governments of Medellin, Bantayan and Daanbantayan.
For patients
So far this year, P6 million from Salimbangon’s P35-million PDAF was released to these towns as financial assistance for poor patients, a report on the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) website revealed.
Legislators’ PDAF shares are coursed through government agencies, like the Department of Public Works and Highways for infrastructure projects, and local government units for financial assistance.
The Capitol’s Integrated Provincial Health Office head, Dr. Christina Giango, said there were no more funds for the Benhur Health Cards, according to the Capitol’s accounting office.
Salimbangon admitted he stopped coursing the financial assistance through the Capitol and that he transferred it to Medellin, Bantayan and Daanbantayan towns after he received reports that his health cards were no longer being honored.
The DBM website revealed that in 2012, Congressman Salimbangon coursed P7 million of his P70-million PDAF for the year, through Cebu Province.
It was supposed to pay for assistance to indigent patients in regional health units (RHU) and hospitals.
These hospitals are the Severo Verallo Hospital in Bogo City, Bantayan District Hospital and Daanbantayan District Hospital.
Local conduit
This year, the website also showed, the funding assistance that used to go to the Severo Verallo Hospital is now deposited with Medellin.
But the facility still accepts indigent patients with the help of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), Giango stressed.
She also cited help from the National Government’s National Household Targetting System for Poverty Reduction (NHTS-PR).
“Wa na sila’y problema kung ma-ospital (They shouldn’t have any problems if they have to be hospitalized),” Giango said.
The NHTS-PR is a databank that identifies who and where the poor households are, to guide government agencies and policy- makers.
It identified 5.19 million poor households, which prompted the distribution of at least 4,000 health cards to give poor families some insurance.
That is cold comfort to Lida Ragudo’s family.
She was admitted in the Severo Verallo Hospital at 1:20 p.m. last March 6 and died at 5:15 p.m. on the same day, due to “cardiac arrest secondary to pulmonary tuberculosis,” said social welfare officer Josephine Licayan
Ill-timed
Salimbangon’s coordinator for patients, Francisco Balbin, admitted that the use of Benhur Health Cards was briefly stopped in February and early March.
The use of the cards resumed in the middle of March, when Salimbangon transferred the funds to Medellin, Bantayan and Daanbantayan.
Dr. Giango believed there was a miscommunication in Ragudo’s case.
Social welfare officer Licayan did not comment and referred Sun.Star Cebu to Dr. Carlos Layese, Verallo hospital chief, who was in Manila on official business.
Lida’s daughter Lina Jane, 23, recalled that her mother kept coughing, so they brought her to the hospital.
They brought Lida back to Kinatarcan on Feb. 27. But a week later, Ragudo’s condition worsened, so they sent her back to the Verallo hospital.
“Maglisod na siya og ginhawa (She had a hard time breathing),” said Lina Jane.
It was only then that that they learned their mother had a lung infection, said Charmaine.
Sacrifice
When her father asked a hospital official regarding the use of the Benhur Health Card, Charmaine recalled, they were told, “Gi-hold kuno kay election ban (That service is on hold because of the election ban).”
Forty days after Lida’s death, her daughters spoke with Sun.Star Cebu in their home. It’s a bare hut without walls, with only an empty table in the middle and a blanket fashioned into a hammock above it, where a baby slept.
Anabel tried to hide her hopelessness by giving a half-smile and short answers, until Charmaine said, “Naghilak man na siya kay way mopalit sa iyang baktin (She’s been crying because no one will buy her piglets).”
Anabel admitted she had planned to use the proceeds to enroll either in the Northern Cebu Colleges in Bogo City or in the Salazar Institute of Technology in Madridejos, Bantayan island.
Charmaine said it’s hard to raise pigs in Kinatarcan during this hot summer, considering that each container of water alone costs P15 there.
From their small hut on the shores of Kinatarcan Island, mainland Cebu looms on the horizon. Bantayan Island, too, waits across the sea. And it’s on these islands that Anabel wishes she could pursue the dreams her mother didn’t live long enough to see.