Party List lawmaker proposes memorial for medical front liners
MANILA – Kabayan Party List Ron P. Salo called for the establishment of a memorial for Filipino front liners and a declaration of a National Day of Mourning and Remembrance.
In his House Bill No, 7109 entitled the “Frontliners’ Commemoration Act”, he called for the construction of a national monument to be known as “Bantayog ng mga Bayaning Frontliners” and an annual observance of a National Day of Mourning and Remembrance” which will be declared a special working holiday.
In a statement, he said his bill would commemorate the heroism of frobntline workers, medical and non-medical, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented crisis that awakened the hero within every Filipino,” he said. The memorial will be dedicated to the doctors, nurses, nursing aides and other allied health professionals who died in their line of work. Non-medical frontline heroes include social workers, barangay health workers, soldiers, policemen, civil servants, volunteers, delivery personnel, priests, pastors, imams and medica practitioners among others.
Included in the bill is the issuance of a Certificate of Heroism to be issued by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) to the nearest of kin of the fallen heroes. A scholarship grant and financial assistance shall be extended to their children to complete their baccalaureate degrees.
It mandates the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education to commemorate the event through programs and activities in schools and the preparation of literatures on the heroism of the fallen frontliners. Government offices are likewise mandated to undertake commemorative programs during the national Day of Mourning and Remembrance.
A Selection Committee with nine members from public and private sectors will be formed and led by the NCCA chair. They are tasked to select from the list of frontline heroes whose names will be engraved in the Bantayog ng mga Bayaning Frontliners.
“Let this Monument become a beacon of prayer, love, unity, courage, and hope for all Filipinos as we battle and finally defeat this pandemic,” the lawmaker concluded. (Melo M. Acuña)
Kabayan Party List Rep. Ron Salo. (File Photo)
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