DAVAO City Councilor and City Indigenous Peoples Mandatory Representative Rodolfo Mande announced that construction of the IP shelter at Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC) will begin in November 2024.
Mande said during the Aprubado sa Konseho on Tuesday morning, November 5, 2024, that a meeting had been held the previous week to finalize the shelter's design with the City Engineer's Office (CEO), and the design has now been completed.
“Later this year mag-start na ang construction so kana ang good news [construction would start so that this is the good news],” he said.
Mande added that with construction set to begin in November, the building is expected to be completed by 2025.
The shelter will serve as a one-stop facility for IP runners and watchers whose family members are patients at SPMC. It will prioritize the needs of the runners and watchers from the city's 11 ethnolinguistic tribes: Ata, Bagobo Klata, Bagobo Tagabawa, Matigsalug, Obu-Manuvu, Iranun, Kagan, Maguindanaon, Maranao, Sama, and Tausug.
Watchers are family members who care for patients inside the hospital, supplementing the care provided by medical practitioners. The need for watchers, especially in public hospitals, is vital due to the shortage of medical staff.
Runners, similar to watchers, are family members who take responsibility for purchasing medicines, food, or equipment needed by the patient. They are also often tasked with processing necessary documents to secure medical assistance from government agencies.
Mande said that all relevant government agencies would have offices in the shelter so that runners would no longer need to travel from one place to another to process these documents.
The shelter, named Kamott-Ikasama, will be a three-story building with a budget of P42 million. It will be constructed on a 200-square-meter plot in front of the emergency entrance of SPMC. Mande explained that the first floor will house government agencies, the second floor will feature a conference room, and the third floor will include male and female dormitories with approximately 100 beds.
He further explained that to accommodate all the IP communities in the city, there will be a separate room for Muslim women to ensure privacy, as well as a designated prayer room.
While the shelter will primarily prioritize Dabawenyo IPs, IPs from outside Davao will also be accommodated on an “optional basis”, meaning if there is still a vacancy to accommodate them.
The councilor added that the shelter will have an annual budget of P10 million to cover facilities and staff costs and that his office is currently working on the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) for the ordinance.
To recall, the 20th Davao City Council approved the IP-Muslim Shelter for Watchers and Runners of IP and Muslim patients on the third and final reading on February 27, 2024. The budget was approved on December 2, 2023.
The creation of the shelter stemmed from a consultation conducted by the IPMR’s office with IP and Muslim communities about their situation at SPMC. Many of these individuals lack the financial resources to rent rooms and are forced to stay in the hospital halls and stairways. RGP
