The Antique Provincial Board is pushing for health programs to be more accessible to the indigenous people’s community through the establishment of a Super Health Center in the municipality of Valderrama.

The Provincial Board approved a resolution during its regular session on Monday requesting the Department of Health and the office of Senator Christopher Lawrence Go, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health, for the additional facility.

“The Super Health Center is intended to make accessible to the community, particularly to the IPs in Valderrama their healthcare needs,” said Vice Governor Edgar Denosta, author of the resolution, in an interview on Tuesday.

Seven of the 22 barangays of the fourth-class town of Valderrama have IP communities.

“It is also one of the interior municipalities of the province of Antique and is home to the indigenous Iraynon Bukidnon,” Denosta said.

He added that he is optimistic about the inclusion of the project in the 2024 budget because he already made an initial request for the estblishment of the facility.

Go, during the groundbreaking of the Super Health Centers in the municipalities of Sibalom and this capital town last month, announced the establishment of the same facility in the town of Culasi within the year.

IP Mandatory Representative to the Valderrama municipal council Elpedio Canja said the Super Health Center will be a big help for the around 7,000 IPs residing in their seven barangays.

“There are times when IP mothers could not be accommodated by the hospital in our town that is why there are some who only opt to deliver their babies at home,” he said in a separate interview.

The center will assure the IP community of assistance for their health needs.

The center is equipped with birthing facilities, a diagnostic laboratory, x-ray and ultrasound equipment, a pharmacy, and an ambulant surgical unit. (PNA)