TVIRD clinic providing much needed health services in Mindanao hinterlands
As a young girl, Marilou Jayson-Prestoza has always been fascinated with the men and women she saw reporting news on television. Growing up in the southern Mindanao province of Basilan where she was born, Malou, as she is fondly called by colleagues and friends, knew in her heart that her dream was to become a journalist someday. Her father, however, wanted to see his daughters become midwives. So, like her older sister who financed her studies, the man of the house wanted to see her garbed in scrub suit and with a stethoscope in tow.
Now already a mother, Malou is happy working as midwife at the clinic of TVI Resource Development Philippines, Inc. (TVIRD) in Canatuan, Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte. There, she is the perfect embodiment of what the clinic symbolizes and does for its patients. Located at the heart of the community, the clinic, which operates 24/7, manifests TVIRD’s unwavering commitment to serve the healthcare and well being of people regardless of race, creed and status in life.
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Marilou Jayson-Prestoza (left) fulfilled the dream of her father by becoming a midwife. Right photo shows her with Senior Nurse Lois Esnane (holding clipboard) attending to a newborn at the TVIRD clinic. The clinic, open 24/7, serves not only company employees but also the community. This symbolizes TVIRD management’s unwavering commitment to serve the healthcare and well-being of people regardless of race, creed and status in life.
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“Our clinic serves not only the Subanon host community of Canatuan, but also the adjacent communities composed of residents coming from Km. 19, and Sitio Tiling of RT Lim town in Zamboanga Sibugay Province, as well as residents from the neighboring towns of Baliguian and Sirawai in Zamboanga del Norte, the host province of TVIRD,” says Dr. Ulysses Silorio, company physician and clinic head.
“Last year, 5% of our outpatients came from the town of Baliguian, while 2% were from Sirawai. Of course, majority of our clients comprising more than half of our patients were from the Subanon Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) area,” explains the doctor while showing his graphs. “Likewise, patients from the non-impact barangays like Lituban, Makiang, D. Riconalla, JP Brillantes, Balagonan, Poblacion and Bulacan, all of the host municipality of Siocon represented 24% of our clientele.”
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Dr. Ulysses Silorio, company physician and clinic head (left, top photo) says “our clinic serves not only the Subanon host community of Canatuan but also the neighboring and adjacent communities in Zamboanga del Norte and Sibugay provinces.”
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“Perhaps the fact that we render services to communities and not solely to TVIRD employees and dependents makes our clinic unique. I remember this practice started the moment the clinic opened its doors in 2003. This policy of serving the community foremost was made clear by then TVIRD Canatuan General Manager and now Vice President for Philippine Operations Yulo Perez in 2004,” says Benjie Macalisang, one of the longest-staying employees of the company. It was during Perez’s time as GM that the present clinic was constructed.
He added: “Our clinic served even the illegal small-scale miners who operated in Canatuan before TVIRD as well as their children when they were still here — proof that the company discriminates no one.”
Aside from providing free routine health checkups and consultations, the clinic has programs aimed at serving the community, according to Silorio. “For instance, our medical staff member often go to our impact and non-impact barangays for medical missions conducted by our Community Relations and Development Office (CReDO). We render free consultations and treatment, distribute free medicine, conduct tooth extractions and even provide free haircut to the people in barangays where we hold these missions.”
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Prestoza explains to a mother how to administer the medicines provided free by TVIRD during one of its various community medical missions. Below, a child’s dental health is checked by a dentist. Also a regular program in medical missions conducted by TVIRD.
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Joel Alasco, CReDO Superintendent says the company has allotted funds amounting to a million pesos this year just for medical missions. “Sometimes we partner with the Maple Tree Foundation for Mountain Communities for this activity that reach out even the farthest Muslim-dominated villages in Siocon town,” he points out.
Malou, who also heads the Maternal Health and Child Care Program of the clinic, says that while she takes care of pregnant women through pre-natal checkups and oversees the immunization of children and infants, under her care is also a group of “pandoys” from the CADT area.
“Pandoys are the Subanon counterpart of the local “hilot/komadrona” (traditional midwives) trained scientifically by TVIRD doctors to assist in infant deliveries within the neighborhood. The involvement of pandoys is part of our sustainability program — that of preparing the host community once the company ceases its operations,” Malou adds.
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Mario Lumayas (left), a resident of Canatuan is grateful that her wife was treated in the clinic after an accident. Right, TVIRD driver Wilfredo Awid says, “We have benefits that employees from other companies do not have.”
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Canatuan resident Mario Lumayas is thankful for the Clinic. “The staff took care of my wife when she fell from a tree. I feel we are even more blessed compared to other barangays of Siocon because our health needs are being served 24/7,” he says.
“Unlike other employees who resort to borrowing money to be able to bring a sick family member to a hospital, we have our clinic to run to,” says Wilfredo Awid, a driver at the TVIRD Environment Department. He also appreciates the initiative of the clinic staff in giving regular vitamin supplements to him and his infant daughter. “I like it here. We have benefits that employees from other companies do not have.”
Silorio said the clinic’s services include general internal medicine, pediatrics, minor surgery, normal deliveries with basic emergency management of Obstetrics and newborn care, Safe Motherhood and Child Care, Emergency Care, Occupational Health, and Health Wellness Promotion Program.
“Our objective is to reduce morbidity, referrals to big hospitals and mortality. We will achieve this through public health service. This is why we partnered with TVIRD’s Labor Management Committee (LMC) to educate our employees’ dependents and community members on proper nutrition, cleanliness and sanitation, on the anti-rabies campaign and others. This is being pro-active,” Silorio added.
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An internist, Dr. Jayson dela Cruz examines a little girl from Candiz of Siocon, Zamboanga del Norte. The well-staffed clinic provides free use of health facilities and services. Below, a first-aider checks the blood pressure of one patient.
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To be able to deliver these services, he has with him another doctor, an internist, Dr. Jayson dela Cruz, who takes care of outpatients, the emergency room and the delivery section. The clinic is also manned by a senior nurse, four junior nurses, midwife, dentist, medical technologist, three first aiders and a pharmaceutical aide. It is also maintains an ambulance that transports patients referred to big hospitals in Ipil, Zamboanga Sibugay or in Zamboanga City. It has spacious and clean wards, birthing room, laboratory and emergency rooms. “These are all free, including the services of our clinic staff,” Silorio said.
“I can’t ask for more. I am very much contented with my job,” Malou says. She happily shares that her only daughter, Mimi, recently passed the government nursing licensure examinations and that his son, who is taking up a bachelor’s degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management is currently doing on-the-job training in a five-star hotel in Singapore. Already a widow, she says “this job has enabled me to support the education and other needs of my children.
“Looking back, I’m glad I listened to my father and took a course that takes care of people’s health as he wanted,” she adds. “I’m now able to do that well here in TVIRD’s Canatuan clinic.”
And, like the other employees of the company and the members of the community, Malou hopes that TVIRD’s mining operations in Canatuan will be extended. “TVIRD may not be perfect. But it has weathered many storms in the past because of the unwavering support of the community and its employees. It is of no wonder that the community treats TVIRD as their own and, like me, they will surely have a hard time letting go when the life of mine ends.” (Lullie Micabalo)
