Botika Para sa Taumbayan: a new venture for government coops, associations

By Elsa S. Subong

Friday 22nd of June 2012

ILOILO, June 22 (PIA6) -- Cooperatives and employees associations are now having a new venture: serving as outlets for medicines, including prescription or maintenance medicines, commonly needed by employees.

“With a Botika in the office, low-cost but quality maintenance and other medicines are made accessible to the employees anytime of the day,” Rufino Leonoras, chief personnel specialist of the Civil Service Commission-6.

Leonoras, who is also the Botika Para sa Taumbayan Project (BPT) coordinator said this project was conceptualized primarily to give employees the option to get their medicines in a comparatively lower cost.

He said CSC chairman Dr. Francisco Duque III, when he assumed office, learned that many employees spend their salaries mostly on maintenance medicines.

“BPT is also a response to the third strategy of the CSC which is cultivating harmony and wellness in the workplace,” Leonoras said.

“This is anchored on the perspective that a healthy bureaucracy is an effective and productive bureaucracy,” he added.

The BPT is a partnership between the CSC and the Department of Health-National Center for Pharmaceutical Access and Management under whichP50,000 worth of medicines are given as starters to the partner coop or association.

The DOH trains operators of the BPT on how to dispense medicines, determine what medicines are to be sold, and know about prescription medicines as well as on how to maintain books.

“Only trained operators, supervised by our pharmacists are allowed to operate the BPT,” said Dr. Alberto Teruel, BPT Coordinator of the DOH-6.

Teruel said only accredited cooperatives and employees associations can apply for the operation of the BPT.

He said since its soft launching in August last year, there are now 14 BPT outlets in Western Visayas, serving employees and students, as there are also those based in schools, run by teachers’ coops.

Western Visayas has a target of 29 BPTs, now finalizing the requirements for 15 other outlets.

“With the income they get from selling, the coops can roll this over and buy their own stocks, as DOH does not require payment for the stocks initiallt given,” Teruel said.

So far, Leonoras said, many of the outlets are already fast consuming their stocks, and with a little profit in the days to come, they can add up to their supplies.

Joseph Ian Chavez, coop Manager of the Multipurpose Cooperative of the Western Visayas College of Science and Technology, the first BPT in the region, said they have been supplying needs of faculty members, employees and students, and even the residents in the vicinity,

The coop operators were the first to be trained and operate the BPT.

Chavez said part of their action plan now as they gradually grow, is to become distributor for the Botika sa Barangay outlets in the province.

They also plan to develop a scheme for salary deduction basis on medicines bought by employees of the school.

The CSC and the DOH have also dreams for the BPTs that they do not only end up selling medicines but as promoters of other health products and activities for healthy lifestyle and wellness on the whole.

The 14 BPT outlets in the region are the Malay Municipal Government Employees and the Provincial Government Employees Development Cooperative in Aklan; the University of Antique Faculty Association in Sibalom and the Antique-DAR employees Multi-purpose Cooperative, San Jose, Antique; and in Capiz, the Roxas City Division Teachers and Employees Multipurpose Cooperative.

In the province of Iloilo, the BPTs are in Western Visayas College of Science and Technology Multi-purpose Cooperative, WV Parole and probation Administration Cooperative in Iloilo city, ISCOF Teachers and Employees Association, Inc., Zarraga Teachers Multi-Purpose Cooperative, DOST VI Multi-Purpose Cooperative and the Lamigas Multi-Purpose Cooperative of National Food Authority.

In Guimaras, there is the Nueva Valencia Municipal Employees Association, while in Negros Occidental, the BPT is in Bago City government Employees Multi-Purpose Cooperative. (JCM/ESS/PIA-Iloilo)