In a recent interview of PR-TV 12 in Tacloban, Protective Services Unit, Ofelia Onida Pagay of the DSWD Field Office VIII, emphasized that there are no referrals needed insofar as medical/burial/educational/transportation assistance are concerned.
She informed that the social worker will assess the needs of clients based on the Social Case Study Report or Brief Case Findings made by the local social worker as well as the Certificate of Indigency issued by the barangay.
Said Pagay, “we give limited cash, from Php5,000.00 and below, if medicines are not available in our service providers/drugstores. For more serious cases, we can extend as much as Php20,000 for medicines.”
Asked whether if medicines that will be given are generic or branded, she disclosed that the agency can grant what is in the prescription.
She emphasized that most of the time, the agency issues a guaranty letter, either to the pharmacy, hospital, or funeral parlor to which the DSWD has inked a Memorandum of Agreement with, in the different localities of the region.
Pagay also revealed that there are satellite offices in cities and capital towns of the region.#