COTABATO CITY — Voting via viva voce, a bill that seeks to procure an additional  P50-million worth of oxygen tanks, was approved by the members of the Bangsamoro Parliament without any objections.

Ziaur-Rahman Adiong, Atty. Nabil Tan, Atty. Ubaida Pacasem and Engr. Baintan Ampatuan principally authored Parliament Bill No. 95 or “An Act Authorizing the Use of Fifty Million (PHP 50,000,000.00) to Fund the Acquisition of Additional Oxygen Tanks to be Charged Against the Quick Response Fund 2021 on Health of the Bangsamoro Government”.

The proposed measure will ensure that hospitals have an adequate supply of medical oxygen throughout the region’s health facilities.

Regional hospitals in the BARMM had already expressed that they have reached their maximum bed capacity due to the coronavirus surge.

The bill’s authors also stressed the demand for the oxygen tanks brought by the alarming increase of Covi-19 cases had left people in the country, including the Bangsamoro people, to scramble for supplies.

“Access to necessary oxygen and ventilators is getting scarce, with more people requiring these types of equipment for their treatment,” wrote in their explanatory note, noting that hospitals’ inability to cater to patients has resulted in infected people dying.

“Following the Committee on Health’s deliberation this morning, the body adopted the said bill as an urgent matter,” COH chair Saffrulah Dipatuan said in the plenary as he delivered the committee report.

The effort to immediately act on passing the legislation, according to Adiong, will prevent further deaths caused by the virus as the tanks served as the region’s “buffer stock” when oxygen supplies became scarce.

The measure, if passed into law, will order the Ministry of Health (MOH) to distribute oxygen tanks and other medical equipment to health facilities in the Bangsamoro region. (Publication and Media Relations Division)